


Hysteria Unbound

by MartyrFan



Category: American McGee's Alice, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: F/M, Lyssa - Freeform, Relapses, The Spirit of Insanity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-29
Updated: 2016-05-29
Packaged: 2018-07-10 21:14:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 22,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7007218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MartyrFan/pseuds/MartyrFan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alice has another evil spirit after her. Lyssa, the Spirit of Insanity, has every intention of driving the Guardian of Imagination back into the clutching arms of madness. Will the Guardians be able to stop Lyssa, or will she destroy Alice's mind along with them? Rated T for violence & disturbing images. AU/sequel to Scorpiofreak's "Winter Wonderland." Please comment! DISCONTINUED</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Shortly after I finished Scorpiofreak's "Winter Wonderland," my imagination was besieged by ideas for the unique universe that she has created. One of those was Lyssa, the Spirit of Insanity. She's perhaps one of the most evil OCs ever created, and I'm about to unleash her upon the Guardians, and especially Alice. Her character bio is "Immortal Madness," if you wish to know her full story. 
> 
> This is basically an AU/sequel for "Winter Wonderland." The point of divergence takes place in Chapter 33 during North's New Year's Eve Party. It could be considered to be part of the original universe, but I'll keep it separate unless Scorpiofreak wants it otherwise. 
> 
> The Cheshire Cat is right about one thing: We're all mad here. I am because I'm starting this while in the middle of another well-thought out story! Well, I hope that you all enjoy the prologue to "Hysteria Unbound."

**Hysteria Unbound**

Prologue

Deep within the Rocky Mountains of the North American continent, isolated and untouched by humankind, there is a cave. Desolate and dark against the elements, unnatural in every sense of the word. It stretches long and deep into the core of the mountain, like a wound to the heart of a gigantic beast. Few animals dared to go that far into it. Not even bats cared for a cave that was darker than night.

There was something out of place with it though. Not too far from the entrance, a bedframe straddled a hole in the ground. The frame looked like it was decades old with its cracked and weathered wood. The hole wasn't large, but it made up for this by being more dark and sinister than the cave where it had appeared. It didn't appear to have a bottom, and there was something very foreboding about it. It seemed to speak of things dark and ancient.

A bitter storm raged against the mountainside, the blistering snow casting a white blanket across the jagged rocks below. The solemn moans of the wind sending even the fiercest of animals to their dens, heeding the warnings of ill will.

No one should have been there at all, but the figure standing against the icy maelstrom, wrapped in a poorly chosen doctor's coat, did not heed the malevolence that permeated the space.

Once the figure was in the cave and out of the wind, it spoke. "Curse that boogeyman. He should know by now that dark and cold don't go together all the time. I thought I was obsessive about where I made my hideouts. He couldn't have found a new place in the Caribbean?"

The speaker was revealed to be a tall woman with Roman features. She had the olive complexion, the light blond hair, the blue eyes, and the trademark nose. She most certainly wasn't dressed for a blizzard; slacks, a blue blouse, and a pair of nice shoes made up her attire along with the lab coat.

There was an air of calm professionalism about her, like that of a psychiatrist or doctor, in the way she examined the decrepit bed frame through her spectacles. "I wonder if it's his lair that moves around, or if it's just the entrance. That would be a good diversion tactic." She carefully stepped through the wooden slats of the bed and lowered herself down the hole. She made her way down slowly by pressing her back against the tunnel's wall and using her hands and legs to navigate.

As soon as she was enveloped by the shadows, the woman suddenly felt the tunnel vanish and she was standing in an open, dark area. Oddly, she didn't seem fazed,, and she continued forward. In a moment, faint beams of light began to filter through, revealing a large, strange chamber.

It seemed to take on a rounded shape, though it was impossible to tell with the shadows. Here and there, small rays of light shown through windows in ceiling, making it possible to see anything. Interconnecting the space was a series of walkways and staircases, none of which seemed to follow any form of order.

The woman appeared to be specially intrigued by these. She became so involved in following their twisty routes that she almost didn't see the creature standing in her way.

It was a bizarre-looking horse of sorts. Its skin was a pure, sparkly black with a sandy consistency about it. Small streamers of black sand lifted out of its back like long flags. Its eyes were like burning, hot coals in his head, glaring out at her as it breathed heavily in and out. It looked like it was ready to charge and trample her.

She smiled at the aggressive creature and walked forward slowly. It was surprised by her reaction and drew itself up, staring at her. She slowed her gait even more and began to coo to it gently. The horse made odd whinnying noises as she came closer. She held up a hand to its nose and just stood there.

The horse from a bad dream blinked and then rested its nuzzle on her outstretched palm. She brought up her other hand and stroked the side of its head. She continued that for a moment and then whispered to it, "Tell your master he has a visitor."

The equine removed its nuzzle from her hand and galloped off into the darkness. The woman began to lose herself amongst the chaos of the intersecting bridges and arches until it came back. The horse positioned itself off to one side of a particularly dark entrance and cocked its head towards it.

The woman gave the creature a brief smile and then continued. The dark soon gave way to what looked like a ruined throne room. The large pieces and chunks of stone work that littered the floor had been arranged to resemble a small flight of stairs leading up to what looked like throne of mismatched rocks.

The throne was occupied by none other than Pitch Black, the Boogeyman. Centuries ago, the Nightmare King had ruled unchallenged during the time of the Middle Ages. He made children afraid of everything unknown in the world, and that fear had bled over into adulthood long after he was done with them. This had been stopped by the Guardians, driving Pitch back into the shadows and under beds. He had made a comeback about three years earlier with his horses, the Nightmares, made of corrupted dreamsand. A few months ago, he and someone called the "Dollmaker" had upgraded the Nightmares into "Night Ruins." The Guardians had stopped him both times and here he was in his lair, sulking.

The woman smiled pleasantly and asked said, "My, my, Pitch. Have you taken up boxing by any chance?" The Boogeyman sported a faint bruise on the side of his head and his nose was slightly crooked.

Pitch glared at her with his yellow eyes. "No, I haven't. Lyssa, we both know the only type of scars you're interested in are the mental ones, and while I do sport a few of those, we both know you're not here about that." He steepled his hands together and looked at her expectantly. "What does the Spirit of Insanity want here?"

The woman, Lyssa, shrugged her shoulders and smiled. "You know me and my ways, Mr. Black. After all…." She suddenly smiled the smile of a demented serial killer, destroying in an instant the calm façade she had maintained. "What's more maddening than adopting the mannerisms of your greatest adversaries and teachers?" Her face returned to its original serene expression and she took a seat on a square rock that faced the throne. "Care to tell me the cause of your hostility?"

She was Lyssa, the Spirit of Insanity, the being that delighted in all forms of madness and mental illness. Her powers consisted of being able to sense those inflicted with diseases of the mind, along with many others. Her most frightening ability was being able to reach into the minds of the unstable and pressuring them into finally snapping. Most of the other spirits of the world stayed away from her. She didn't have many acquaintances, and only one that she would call "friend." It made sense that fear and madness would be allies.

Pitch looked at her for a moment and then groaned in surrender. "Oh alright. It wouldn't hurt, and I could use a psychiatrist for once." He leaned back in his glorified rock-heap and looked up at the ceiling. Lyssa took out a notebook and pen and nodded for him to begin. Clasping his hands over his stomach, he began his story.

"I'm frustrated. Only a few short centuries ago I was believed in and feared by all the children of the world. In every culture, children feared the figure in the shadows, the Boogeyman, the Nightmare King. They feared the night, with its darkness and shadows. They would grow up, and pass their fear to their children even though they no longer believed in my existence. They still didn't like the dark though."

He smiled in nostalgia. Lyssa nodded and continued writing. "And then?" she asked.

Pitch's smile turned into a frown real quick. "Then the Man in the Moon saw fit to bring the Guardians together. They destroyed my power through hope, wonder, dreams, and memory, leaving me weak enough to be fought physically. I became nothing more than a joke amongst children. _'There's no such thing as the Boogeyman.'_ " He glared up at the ceiling, his tone high and mocking.

"I tried for centuries to make them fear me again, but nothing worked. Then I found her." He looked over at Lyssa. "You know who I mean. Alice Liddell."

Lyssa nodded. "I remember. Rutledge Private Clinic and Asylum: Home of Wayward and Lost Souls. Post-traumatic stress disorder with a large dose of survivor's guilt. Admitted in 1864, stayed there until 1874. Currently a spirit and the Guardian of Imagination."

Pitch sneered at that last bit. "Yes, all that potential, and she's wasting it protecting children. I saw two things in her when we came across her at your old home: hope and inspiration. She was so full of wonder and dreams, and look what became of that; a dreamworld, her Wonderland, turned into a breeding ground of nightmares and fear. I thought to myself, 'if a single child can go off like this without any help from me or you, what's to stop me from regaining my rightful place?'

"As to inspiration, well, you saw her nightmares. If I could somehow take the beautifully terrifying figments of her twisted imagination and transplant them into the dreams of other children, then my return would be assured.

"I began to concentrate on learning the hows and whys of the human imagination and especially their dreams. I started learning how to enter the imagination of any child and learning their darkest fear. Even so, that would be useless to me unless I could bring that fear to overtake their dreams. Then I hit upon it. The Sandman's dreamsand.

"For almost a century, I learned how to invade the dreamworld of anyone, and how to coax out the dreamsand's true potential, the Nightmare. Once it was ready, I struck. In a matter of days, I had the Guardians on their knees and only one child left in the world that believed in them. But could I be allowed to reclaim my throne? NO. The Man in the Moon saw it fit to choose that troublemaking fool, Jack Frost, as a new Guardian. Without that interfering misfit, I would have won there and then."

Pitch stopped to take a breath after his rant. Lyssa stopped scribbling on her notepad and looked up at him. "That must have been vexing to you."

Pitch snorted. "You have no idea. It took me two years to regain control over my Nightmares. That's incredibly annoying by the way," he added, "that way you got that Nightmare to obey you like that."

Lyssa shrugged. "I have my ways. Please continue."

Pitch looked back up at the ceiling and sighed. "Two years later, and the Man in the Moon chooses another Guardian, Alice Liddell. I remembered her and her warped dreams and I thought it would be a good idea to take a look into her imagination and see if I could find anything to help me. I did, the Dollmaker. Never have I found a more distorted character than him. He offered to me help me destroy the Guardians, by making the children fear _them_. We were alike in so many ways except for two things: He was so impatient and he was so fixated upon Alice. When he kidnapped that arrogant hairball of a pooka, all he did was to inflame the ire of the Guardians and Alice."

"That explains your injuries," mused Lyssa. "Tell me, was that all of them, or just Alice?"

"It was all Alice, then she went into my mind and discovered where the Dollmaker was and where he was keeping the Easter Bunny. The fool fell by her hand, and I can't really say I miss him. Just the Night Ruins.

"For centuries now, I've worked so hard and now I've been defeated two times in as many years. Now there are six Guardians instead of four and they've all got a reason to hate me. You'll excuse me if I'm a bit out of sorts." He straightened back up, signaling that he was done.

Lyssa set her pen down and began going over her notes. After a few minutes, she looked up. "Your strategy of going after the source of their power was quite brilliant, Pitch. There were two problems with it though. By going after the children, you only served to anger them, much the same as if you tried to take the cubs of a grizzly bear. You also didn't count on MiM's newest choices in Guardians. Going directly after the children only made him choose Frost, and Liddell is quite the powerful girl if I hear correctly."

"She is," snapped the Boogeyman. "What do you think I should do? Confront the Guardians directly? Because that won't work, not since they're currently some of the most formidable spirits in the world with all that belief pouring into them."

Lyssa was silent for a moment. Then she said slowly, "No, no. You shouldn't, because I plan to."

Pitch stared at her for a moment, than burst out in a howl of laughter. Lyssa gave him a deadpan expression as he cackled.

"You," he gasped out at last. "Why would you go after the Guardians? Have you completely lost your mind?"

"I lost it nearly two millennium ago," answered Lyssa coolly. "And I'm not targeting the Guardians as a whole. Just Alice."

Pitch finished catching his breath and gave her an odd look. "And what is your concern with Liddell? She's quite sane now, unfortunately."

"Not as much as you think," Lyssa retorted. "When I was at the New Year's Eve Party last night I came across two things. The first was a scent, which I located off both the bottom floor of the workshop and off of Liddell herself. Hysteria, pure, raw hysteria. The type that comes off of those that first lose all hope and then all rational thought, turning them into a raging, rabid animal."

She had his attention now. "I also saw one of her creations, the Cheshire Cat. And he looked absolutely nothing like that pink-and-purple abomination that that imbecile Disney came up with. No Pitch," Lyssa smiled crookedly. "She is vulnerable mentally, and I intend to exploit that.

"Imagine it," she flung her arm out suddenly, nearly making Pitch jump. "A spirit with her power, driven mad to a permanent hysterical state, set loose upon the immortal and mortal worlds. A few people, including children, find Carroll's stories to be disturbing enough that they might be able to see her in her maddened state. Imagine," she lowered her voice, "the fear she could inspire in both spirits and mortals."

Pitch sat back in his chair and considered it for a moment. Then he asked, "What do you need me for? You wouldn't have come here if you didn't think you needed my help."

Lyssa smirked at him. "When you have found the thing that a man fears most, you will have discovered the key to his madness." As Pitch nodded in acknowledgment, she added, "That quote is from _Stonehearst Asylum_ , one of my favorite movies. You know Pitch, you should honestly go to the movie theaters every once in a while. The horror movies these days would both entertain you and give you inspiration. I know they do for me."

"I'll consider it," Pitch answered. "Besides taking Alice out of the equation, how would this hurt the other Guardians?"

"Because they're targets now," Lyssa answered. "If I had had any idea of Alice's madness a few months ago, I wouldn't have to bother with them. Everyone has anchors: Things, places, people, and ideas that keep their mind from fragmenting into insanity, that help them to stay sane in the face of reality.

"Alice's anchors now include the Guardians, along with Wonderland and its inhabitants. If I can use her fear against her, and find a way to destroy her anchors, she'll lose it again and this time," Lyssa grinned wickedly and a shiver-inducing gleam appeared in her eyes, "she'll never come back."

Pitch slowly smiled as well and sat up straight. "I'll tell you what she fears. I'll tell you everything about her and about them. Just make sure they suffer." His yellow eyes danced with frightful glee as he thought about Lyssa's plan.

Lyssa continued to smile as Pitch began talking. ' _Let the madness begin!'_


	2. The Bliss Before the Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on a roll with all the inspiration I've got going through my head right now. Once again, my thanks to Scorpiofreak and TheObsessor11294 for betareading and proofreading my story so far. They're two of the best when it comes to that. Now then, Chapter 1 of "Hysteria Unbound."

**The Bliss before the Storm**

_March, Easter Sunday_

The sun was just beginning to rise over the old city of Oxford. It was a little after five in the morning and a single figure could be seen observing the dawn from with the campus grounds of the University of Oxford. Two emerald-green eyes glinted in the half-dark as the sun rose slowly over the horizon.

"I never would have believed that I would see this place again," the early-riser murmured. The local birds began singing at this point, causing their audience of one to cock her head to one side, taking in the music of an early Oxford morning. The answer to what the girl was doing up at this hour was revealed by the Easter basket full of eggs that she was supporting in the crook of one arm.

"Oi, Alice," called out an Australian-accented voice farther back in the dark. "Dawn's here, and we don't have much time to finish."

"One moment please," the girl answered, her English accent almost as musical as the birds' songs. She stood for a few more seconds admiring the view before hurrying after her companion. Setting up all the Easter Egg hunts the world over tended to cause time to fly right by.

Two dark forms shot over the campus and the parks nestled in the city. One of them bounded and jumped over obstacles, laying out the eggs expertly. The other had a much different method: She would disintegrate into what looked like a cloud of butterflies and blue dust. The butterfly swarm would travel from hiding spot to hiding spot, turning back into a girl that placed her eggs with a little more deliberation in her style. By the time the sun was fully in the sky, only one egg remained to be hidden.

"Here, you can hide the last one." The runner stood to his full of height of over six feet, revealing a lean anthromorphic-rabbit body. He held out a beautifully-decorated egg to the other egg-hider.

"I couldn't. You're the Easter Bunny, it's your holiday after all," the girl declined gently.

"No you don't," the six-foot rabbit answered with a teasing tone to his voice. "Rule 50 of the Easter Bunny rule book says that if an Easter Bunny has an assistant with him, she gets to hide the last egg."

"Oh really," the "assistant" smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Is that the oldest rule in the book?"

"Newest one actually," the Easter Bunny replied. He grinned. "Nice try there, Alice. You remember when you caught me with that back in 1862?"

"How could I not recall that? The look in your eyes when you realized you were cornered won't soon be forgotten," Alice smiled as she took the egg. "The memory box from Tooth will always make sure of that." She walked over to a picnic table and carefully placed the egg just out of sight by one of its legs.

Bunny snorted then perked his ears up. "There are some ankle-biters a few blocks down. The little boogers are getting up earlier and earlier these days. Come on," he jerked his head towards a park they had just finished a few minutes earlier. "You need to see this."

Bunny originally was going to keep his speed down for Alice's sake, but when she shot by him as a cloud of butterflies, he took off after her. It did his pooka heart good to see her somewhat happy. It reminded him of the old times before the fire, before Bumby. He hurriedly shook off the memory of the man and just avoided running full on into a streetlamp.

Bunny remembered the second and final Easter that he had with Alice when she was just a normal human child, untouched by the world's darker side. Back then he had tried to dissuade her of helping him. She had trapped him through pure logic and childish determination, a combination unique to a youngster of her age. Now he was the one urging her to help him with his holiday. She was reluctant at first, as she was at trying new things, a leftover from her old, solitary life. He could see a spark of joy in her green eyes as she oversaw the eggs with him, a welcome change from the usual cynical glare.

It had been over a year since Alice had become a Guardian. The calm after the defeat of the Boogeyman and the Dollmaker had been more than welcome. First Pitch unleashed his Nightmares over three years ago, then two years later that fearmonger had broken the Dollmaker, Alice's mental representation of Dr. Angus Bumby, out of her head. Both incidents had been terrible in their own right. None of the original four would say it, but something told them it was just the beginning.

Bunny was glad that he was the Guardian of Hope, because that seemed to be flourishing. Children that had stopped believing after the Sieges, as they were called, were coming back, slowly but steadily. No one had heard from Pitch at all, and so far nothing bad had happened randomly. Not all of the things that threatened the children had a malevolent instigator. Sometimes it was other children, such as that brat that made his peers scared of the Guardians. Other times it was teenagers or a minor spirit out for a sick laugh.

As for Alice's pocket dimension, Wonderland was doing quite well. The remains of the Dollmaker's Workshop had vanished with his defeat, leaving the Dollhouse finally free of that disgusting haunt. In the Wonderland Graveyard, the Red Queen's hideout had collapsed completely leaving a gray indentation in the ground. When the wind finally finished blowing the dusty remains of the tyrannical monarch away, there was likely to be large cave/canyon where she had rested her enormous bulk. From Jack's description of her, Bunny was glad he had never had the misfortune of meeting her. Most of Wonderland's denizens were enough to deal with.

Alice didn't believe that the Red Queen was gone for good, but Bunny thought it was most likely that the psychotic witch was dead. What kind of creature could take an oversized shard of ice to the chest, which froze her main body, gave the surrounding parts a bad case of frostbite, and dissolved the red flesh into dust, and survive? Bunny had to give Jack credit for that, though he'd never admit to the sprite's face. Whacking one of the most infamous villains in literature was a real feather in his cap. That, if acknowledged, would blow up his head like a balloon. Though he was now a Guardian, Jack Frost would always be Jack Frost.

As for belief, both Jack and Alice's believers were slowly growing. The Burgess Bunch had a hand with that. They'd tell the tales of the two to anyone who would listen. In Burgess, kids ranging from under Sophie's age to Cupcake's were beginning to see the Spirit of Winter for the first time. It was strange for Jack to have a few kids walking along look up when he passed overhead. Being able to fly under your own power sure got you noticed when you were believed in. He usually made his appearances during the winter months. He didn't like disappointing the kids during late spring, summer, and early fall.

Alice had lately had the awkward experience of being asked for her autograph, a first for the former recluse. She was gradually getting used to the responsibilities of being a Guardian. Thankfully she had five friends to help her out, along with two humans that knew her real story and were understanding towards her. When she had confronted, _gently_ , Jamie and Cupcake about the indirect invasion of her privacy, they had apologized profusely and promised to never mention the articles to anyone else.

The Internet both fascinated and horrified the ex-Victorian. The idea that information on almost everything and everyone could accessed by millions of people around the world was beyond even her imagination. She desperately hoped that no one else who saw her would discover those articles. She was happy that the sugarcoated stories were what people were familiar with, not the dark and horrendous truth.

A few minutes later, Alice and Bunny watched as packs of kids roamed the park, searching for the eggs. Bunny couldn't help but smile as excited cries rang throughout the grassy area. This part was always his favorite, when the children searching for his eggs found them and their faces lit up with joy. To see that hope in their faces and then to see that hope rewarded, that was the best part of the entire job.

"You know sheila," Bunny began, "this is what it's all about. That's one thing Frostbite was able to show us." He remembered when Jack had reminded them of what they were truly fighting for when Sophie had gotten into the Warren. "We were startin' to forget that when…." He turned to find that he was talking to a bush.

He looked around for a moment before he spotted her. She was carefully placing a spare egg in front of a small child that was lagging behind the others. He looked like he might be about to cry. He wasn't as quick as his peers and they were finding the eggs much faster than he could move.

He almost didn't see the egg. The tiny boy's face pinched and upset, his bottom lip beginning to tremble as he squinted against growing tears. Alice finished moving the googie and sat back as he looked up. His cry of joy as he saw the egg just rang of ecstasy. That egg was one of Bunny's best, the ones that he put an extra bit of workmanship into just for this sort of thing. The glitter and swirls of the egg entranced the boy as he picked it up. His wide eyes took it in as he carefully placed it in his basket.

As he turned to rejoin his friends, he looked towards the bushes and called out, "Thank you Mr. Easter Bunny!" He hurried after the other children with his prize, a smile wide on his face.

Alice smiled from her position on the grass as she watched him. "What were you saying just now, Mr. Bunnymund?" she asked as he walked up behind her. He could hear the smile in her voice.

"Just a rather obvious fact," he answered. "If I ever see that little blighter again, I'll be sure to tell him Alice Liddell was the one who gave him that egg."

"Now Bunny," Alice took on a semi-serious tone as she crossed her arms over her chest, giving the pooka a wry smile. "There's no need to do that. I merely did what you would have done. Nothing special."

"Actually, I think I would have missed that one," Bunny said. "Too busy jawin' to notice. Besides, he'll be able to see you if I tell him." He was lying about not noticing of course.

"I'm perfectly capable of finding my own believers, thank you very much." Alice looked over the park as the children continued their hunt for the illusive eggs. "To think, I nearly said 'no' to this," she said quietly.

A sad look began to make its way across Alice's face. "Bunny, do you think I should have stayed in the real world? I could have done so much good if I had remained here." She couldn't help but wonder about that from time to time. She had ignored the suffering of the other children at the orphanage to concentrate on her own, and then she had locked herself up in her Wonderland to stay there for more than a century. Was there any difference between ignoring pain and hiding from the world?

Bunny shook his head. "No, I think that you did what anyone else would have done in your place. The world treated you like rubbish, and you had the chance to get away from it all. I know I would have done the same thing if the bloody world had given me that hand." He placed his paw on her shoulder. "There are plenty of people that wish they could escape from the world. You needed to recover, and no one will ever begrudge you that."

Alice's lips formed a small smile. "Thank you Bunny."

They spent the next half hour watching as the eggs were hunted down by the searching children. When Alice invited the Easter Bunny to tea at the Red Kingdom, he accepted. He used one of his tunnels and a Wonderland marble to open up a portal, despite Alice's protests that she just needed to find a mirror. They disappeared down the hole and it closed behind them. Shortly afterwards, a figure in a white-lab coat came out of the bushes and walked over to the place where the tunnel had been. Two bespectacled eyes studied the area and the flower that grew up right in its center with great interest. As the figure left, she stepped on the flower and ground it under her heel.

**ROTG:AMA-ROTG:AMA-ROTG:AMA**

_May_

"Alice, you have mastered every instrument in this room. Why not try the singing? It is positive that you have beautiful singing voice. I feel it in my belly."

Alice sighed to herself as she balanced a double-bass on its stand. She and North had started spending time in his music room every other time she came to visit. Ever since he had found her playing his grand piano, he had been dropping hints that he would like to start up his music again, this time with a partner. When she had protested that the only real instrument she knew was the piano, he offered to teach her the rest.

By now, she had mastered close to half of the instruments (North tended to exaggerate a bit sometimes) and she had to admit she was enjoying herself. She had used to loathe musical instruments of any kind, especially pianos. She had been more of a singer before the fire, but she hadn't really gotten back into the habit since then. She had still loved music and had therefore tolerated the stench of the Playwright Octopus's home (and the Octopus himself) to learn the piano.

North had proved to be a much better teacher and she had learned at a much faster rate under his tutelage then under the Octopus's. He had also started to drop hints about her natural singing voice. If she remembered correctly, she hadn't sung in front of an audience since her first foray into Wonderland, and the last time she had practiced had been with her mother the day before….

"Are you sure that you're not just peckish?" she asked hurriedly before any unpleasant memories could resurface. Sometimes the best evasive tactic was humor. And humor could work wonders with North St. Nicholas.

Sure enough, he laughed deep in his stomach. It was a deep, rolling laugh, the type that made you want to laugh along with. Alice found it both charming and annoying, as she liked the sound of his laugh, yet wasn't very inclined to laugh herself. She felt somewhat the same way about Jack's laugh. ' _It's a mischievous laugh, the type easily associated with a troublemaker of his caliber,'_ she mused. ' _Though, I wouldn't call his laugh charming. Infectious maybe. Attractive….'_

North ceased laughing to reply, interrupting Alice's train of thought. " _Nyet_ Alice. The feeling in my belly and the hungry feelings are very different. Hunger is sharp like knife. The belly feeling is-." He stopped short and crinkled his brow in thought. He usually did that whenever he was searching for the right English words. "Opposite of 'concrete.' Cannot remember exactly what word is," he finally said.

"Abstract," Alice supplied as she leaned the large string instrument against the wall and picked up a flute. She played her slender fingers over the holes, going over in her mind the deft movements that needed only breath to translate into harmony. "If something isn't concrete, Mr. North, or needs subjective language to describe, it's generally best to ignore it."

"Good piece of advice, Alice," North responded. "On other hand, how many times has the belly been right?" He smiled in triumph from his seat.

Alice quickly went over in her mind how many times he had based or predicted something off of the infamous belly. Jack's guardianship, her guardianship, how much she would love the music lessons once she got started. The list was rather long by now. "Very well, I concede that point," she admitted. "Though I would hardly call your lower abdomen omniscient."

North laughed again. " _Oches nechno._ Very funny. Any songs in particular you like? I know very good folk songs." Alice realized that she didn't know that many songs. Most of them were children's songs that she had been taught as a little girl and/or ones that she had sung to the orphans at Houndsditch. One song in particular suddenly came to her mind. A refreshed memory brought the words directly to her again, as new as the day she had learned and sang them.

"I've just the thing," she answered. "Would you play this tune please?" She showed him on the piano.

" _Da_ , that sounds very nice." North sat down on the piano bench and cracked his fingers as Alice went over the song in her mind and cleared her throat. She nodded at him and he began to play. When she heard the note where she was to begin, she opened her mouth and began to sing.

_'"_ _Will you walk a little faster," said a whiting to a snail,_

_"_ _There's a porpoise close behind us and he's treading on my tail._

_See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance,_

_They are waiting on the shingle, will you come and join the dance?_

_See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance,_

_They are waiting on the shingle, will you come and join the dance?_

_Will you, won't you, will you, won't you join the dance?_

_Will you, won't you, will you, won't you join the dance?_

_"_ _You can really have no notion how delightful it will be,_

_When they take us up and throw us, with the lobsters, out to sea!"_

_But the snail replied "Too far, too far!" and gave a look askance,_

_Said he thanked the whiting kindly, but he would not join the dance._

_Would not, could not, would not, could not, would not join the dance._

_Would not, could not, would not, could not, would not join the dance._

_'"_ _What matters it how far we go?" his scaly friend replied._

_"_ _There is another shore, you know, upon the other side._

_The further off from England the nearer is to France,_

_Then turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and join the dance._

_Will you, won't you, will you, won't you join the dance?_

_Will you, won't you, will you, won't you join the dance?"'_

As the words rose and fell out of her throat, Alice was drawn back into the time before the fire, when she was just an innocent little girl exploring a world that existed within the confines of her own mind. A world that spoke of the wonders of imagination and fancy, a wonderland where a Gryphon and a Mock-Turtle could teach a little girl a dance and two songs. A world that was so long ago.

As she finished, Alice was almost startled by the applause that broke out. She opened her eyes to see the elves gathered around. Ever since the first time she had played the piano, the funny, little creatures would gather around to listen, enraptured by her music. She enjoyed watching them, for they too reminded her of Wonderland's good, old days. That was probably the reason why they liked her; most of her creations had originally been like them.

She jumped in earnest as four more distinctive claps broke out along with the elves' and North's. She looked up to see the rest of the Guardians in the doorway, joining in the applause. She paused, unsure for a moment, then gave a little curtsey to her expected and unexpected audiences.

Sandy gave her four thumbs up; two with his hands and two with his dreamsand. Being unable to sing made him appreciate the art more than most.

"Alice, that was beautiful," Tooth said. She looked teary-eyed. Tooth had always thought to herself that if Alice had been able to live a normal life, she would have become a great singer or actress. Alice had the looks and the talent to have made a name for herself on the stage.

"Now that was singin'," Bunny complimented. "Nothing like that ratbag garbage that Miley Bieber spews out."

"Miley Cyrus, though you're right about her music," Jack corrected. "That was awesome Alice. I'd give my staff to see you and Idina Menzel have a sing-off." Alice gave him an odd look. "She's a very good singer."

"Ah," said Alice, who was slightly embarrassed by all the praise but was able to hide it. "I believe I should practice a tad more before I take up 'sing-offs,' but thank you very much. Though," she added," I would greatly appreciate a warning about who consists of my audience." She gave North a look.

"I could not resist," protested the older but more childish spirit. With a gleam in his eye, he continued. "Besides, preparation is good, but too much can ruin singing. I am not good singer, but I can help you smooth out bumps."

"Very well Mr. North," Alice acquiesced. "Until our next practice then." The elves made a path for her as she walked past, looking up at her with adoring eyes. Jack smirked at them and Alice, earning a quick glare from her.

"Isn't that the song that the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon taught you when you first went to Wonderland?" Bunny asked as he hopped alongside her down the hall towards her guest room. She usually relied upon the bathroom mirror as the portal between the real world and Wonderland. Jack had nicknamed that particular mirror the "Looking Glass."

"Yes, that's the one," Alice answered absentmindedly. The two hybrids had been giving her more trouble recently than they usually did. It had started when she had finally begun clearing the Looking-Glass Line of leftover Ruin and fixing it. The first thing she had done was to restore the engine itself to its former glory. The Mock-Turtle had been so deliriously happy to see it, he had sobbed straight for two hours.

He had given the _HMS Gryphon_ to the real Gryphon afterwards. It was basically a peace-offering (that Alice had to broker) between the two after the Mock-Turtle had nearly scared the Gryphon out of half his feathers. After he had finished crying, the Mock-Turtle had jumped into the and began blowing the whistle like a madman, right when the Gryphon had decided to take a nap not twenty yards. Needless to say, the Gryphon had been far from happy with his old friend. Surprisingly, he had taken to the boat like a fish to water.

_Now that I'm thinking of gifts,_ Alice thought to herself. "Toothiana, I've been meaning to thank you for my old memories. I remembered singing that song long before I cracked open the books. Those memories have brought so much back to me." And to think at one point she had believed Bumby's wretched lies about the "curse" of memory.

_'_ _Memory is a curse more often than a blessing.'_ That monster of a man and the Tooth Fairy couldn't have been more different. Had the Dollmaker been able to frighten the children out of believing in the Guardians, she likely would have been the first to fall at his twisted hands.

"You're welcome, Alice." Tooth smiled sadly. "I'm just sorry that we weren't able to collect all your teeth." The swarm of mini-fairies that clustered over her shoulder chattered and chittered their own apologies. To them, a tooth lost was a tragedy. To lose more than half of a set of teeth, that was an unmatched horror and a shameful stain upon their reputation.

"I'm quite alright with the ones I've got," Alice replied a little stiffly. The fairy seemed to think that she wanted to have all of her childhood memories. The ones that replayed in her mind every time she used the box were happy ones before the fire with Mama, Papa, Lizzie, Nan Sharpe, and of course Bunny.

She wanted nothing to do with the bad, sorrowful ones. The fire and the resulting insanity were still too vivid for her taste. She didn't need those to come back as strong as the good ones. As far as she was concerned, she didn't care a bit where her missing baby teeth had wound up.

"When's the next meeting?" she asked suddenly, hoping to change the subject.

"A month from now," Jack yawned. At every meeting he made it apparent that he didn't want to be there. On the other hand, Alice would listen attentively and even take notes sometimes, something that the winter sprite couldn't and didn't want to understand. It seemed that she and Bunny were absolutely dedicated to everything boring and dull. When Alice had learned about the Sack of Kidnapping, she had volunteered to use it at their last meeting. Jack had only been saved from that because he had walked in the room as Alice was bringing it out.

_'_ _Frost, the next time you waste all our time like that again, I'll hunt you down and put you in this sack with the Cheshire Cat!'_

Bunny thought it was a riot that Jack didn't want to be anywhere near that animal. No one was laughing at him now for finding that feline creepy. Tooth officially blamed Pitch for a nightmare where she and Cheshire had been married. That thought brought shivers to even Sandman.

"See you then if not sooner," Jack yelled as he rocketed down the hall and into the main room of the workshop, where he shot out of aperture where MiM usually looked in. Alice huffed disapprovingly and, after saying farewell to her fellow Guardians, left for Wonderland. Everyone else took their leave and North went back to supervising his workshop. It was quiet for a few moments in the hallways.

Then the Spirit of Insanity crept out of a closet, just avoiding getting smacked by a broom handle in the process. "Well," Lyssa said, "this is getting somewhere."

**ROTG:AMA-ROTG:AMA-ROTG:AMA**

Ever since Lyssa had visited Pitch for information on the Alice and the Guardians, she had been spying on them as best as she could. She had to be careful as she didn't want to be found out too soon. Thankfully, she was pretty good at hiding and being quiet when she wanted to be. She knew the locations of their hideouts by now, but that alone didn't do her much good. The only way to the Warren was through Bunnymund's tunnels, the Tooth Palace and Santoff Claussen had far too many eyes than Lyssa liked, Sandman and Jack's homes were isolated and the other Guardians didn't go there that much, and Wonderland was in an entirely different dimension.

She would have settled for just spying on them in the field, but then she learned about the Guardian's meetings. Yes, the North Pole was much farther away from civilization than Lyssa would have liked and there were dozens of yetis and hundreds of elves everywhere, but the chance to get more information on the Guardians was too tempting.

The reason she didn't care for isolated wildernesses was that there were no minds nearby. In order to mind-jump effectively, Lyssa needed to be able to jump from one mind to the next. Mind jumping was when Lyssa basically used nearby spirit, human, and animal minds like children used monkey-bars at a playground. She would turn into a little ball of yellow-green light and then propel herself from one mind to the next, usually giving the one she had just left a headache. For obvious reasons, she almost always used human minds. After jumping out of a single mind, Lyssa could go for about ten to a hundred miles before she used up her energy and crashed to the ground. The distance usually depended on how much momentum she built up before flying on her own.

She would have asked Pitch for help considering he could travel anywhere there was a shadow, but she didn't want to run the risk of the Guardians seeing her with him. It was well-known that they were friends, but she had never helped him with his schemes to take on the Guardians and she didn't want them coming after her until she was ready.

After a few experimental runs, she was able to reach the North Pole. From there, she was able to mind-jump using the elves and yetis. She would make sure that none of them were watching, than she would shift into the light-ball, zoom into an available mind, and then into another hiding place. She made sure that she wasn't in their minds for long. The yetis' tranquil minds, typical to large mammals, didn't agree with her at all, while the simple, inane innocence of the elves made her want to vomit. Besides, she couldn't really read the minds of the mentally healthy.

She had learned quite a bit from Pitch about the Alice, the Guardians, and their fears. One thing she had learned from all the psychiatrists and psychology lectures she had listened to, that wouldn't be enough. In order to cure (or cause) mental disease, you had to know much more about a person than just their fear, though that was an excellent start.

She had learned things that were "obvious and not terribly useful" as Alice would have put it. The Tooth Fairy had a sweet tooth for chocolate that she worked hard to keep in check. Jack Frost enjoyed classical rock and ice-cold egg nog. The Easter Bunny loved raw carrots but hated them cooked. Sandman always tried to send Alice good dreams when she slept at Santoff Claussen. North preferred cookies with nuts over those that didn't. Good for a trivia game, but not for what she had in mind.

Then she had come across two interesting tidbits: Bunnymund had his own personal way into Wonderland, and the Tooth Fairy had given Alice some of her childhood memories back, the good ones. Lyssa remembered what Bumby had said about memory being a curse more than a blessing, and she agreed with him. The memories that were filled with hate, fear, and sorrow, those were the ones that were strongest, and they were the ones that could drive one mad.

Pitch had told her about when he had infiltrated Alice's dreams, finding a near-perfect replica of Wonderland within. He had described the luridly monstrous things there that would have frightened Disney away from Alice for good. Lyssa was scandalized to learn about the card-zombies that worked for Alice as gardeners.

Honestly, the girl seemed bent on bringing order to Wonderland. That desire for order and regulation was one of the things that Lyssa had liked least about the Victorian era. The Victorian culture had been so convinced that an orderly, well-regulated life was the ultimate lifestyle, that it was the supreme expression of human society. Lyssa had enjoyed watching as that bubble had been popped first by the _Titanic_ disaster, and then by the First World War.

Ideas applying the information that she had recently gathered swirled throughout her mind in a way that made sense only to her twisted psyche. One of the pros of being insane was it allowed for connections and inspiration that no stable brain would ever conceive.

Several thoughts flitted through her mind until one suddenly stopped still and stayed there in the forefront. Lyssa stared straight ahead for one moment before her face broke into a grin and she let out one high-pitched laugh.

The hurried footsteps of a large creature suddenly sounded and Lyssa looked up to see the yeti in charge of security, Phil, come charging into the hallway. He looked down to one end of the corridor and then looked directly at Lyssa.

Phil stood there for one moment, squinting like he was trying to see something very small, then turned and walked away, grumbling in his strange language. Lyssa smiled at his retreating back.

One of Lyssa's powers was the ability to cause hallucinations suited to the things that would drive someone crazy if they were unstable. That instability allowed the illusions to be seen, though Lyssa had discovered a way that that power could be used on a stable person. Instead of making them see something that wasn't there, she simply made them _not_ see something that _was_ there. It wasn't perfect; she could be seen out of the peripheral vision but she was fine with that. Whoever saw her like that would turn to find nothing at all. She rather enjoyed that reaction. It unsettled them, and with all the times she had come to the Pole, she was certain that the yetis thought something was up. They just didn't know what.

Lyssa walked to a window and opened it, letting the breeze wash over her. The wind, so chaotic in its movements and effects. She also enjoyed that. Concentrating, she turned into the light-ball and went flying out the window and down into the yeti village. Jumping through a few of them before they could notice her, she shot off into the distance towards an area where some caribou lived. The large herds made for some quick travel over long distances.

Lyssa flew as quickly as she could. _'Now I've got something to work with. I've got leads to follow, ideas to test, and one Guardian to bring down. I've haven't had this much fun since watching that German dictator's power corrupt him further!'_

The Immortal Madness was on the move, and the Guardians were about to learn just how truly monstrous she was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooh, what evil, vile plan does Lyssa have cooking up in her sick noggin? Believe me, when you learn just what she has planned, the answer will send you screaming for the nearest parental figure. Mwahahaha.
> 
> What do you think of "Hysteria Unbound" so far? If you liked the chapter or want to shout out your own ideas for it, please leave me a comment. Just to let you know, comments are a great source of inspiration and support for writers and are greatly appreciated. Anyway, hope you all have a good one and I look forward to my next installment. Happy reading and writing!


	3. Dark Side of Memory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please feel free to leave a review telling me what you thought of this chapter. With that out of the way, please enjoy chapter 2 of "Hysteria Unbound"!

**Dark Side of Memory**

_Alice stared up at the ceiling as the gurney she was on was wheeled through the hall. The regularly-placed lights shined on a dirty floor made up of brown tiles. The lights weren't strong and so the hallway was a sequence of light, shadow, light, shadow. The doors to the patients' room lined the hallways. Out of some of them a crazed visage would occasionally peer out. Nothing but screams and moanings would come out of others. This had been her home for the past month now._

_"_ _Leechin' now, is it?" The orderly pushing her gurney asked with a tone of revulsion. "I 'ate the nasty things. They wriggle 'round in those jars, looking for something or someone to suck the blood from. Gives me the willies."_

_"'_ _Least you don't have to touch the slimy little worms. If it wasn't impossible to load a coin, I'd say you're cheatin' whenever we flip it," the other one responded. "That's the fifth time this week I've 'ad to attach 'em."_

_Alice didn't respond as they came closer and closer to the bloodletting room. She didn't know what was going on and she didn't care. She had been like this ever since the fire, through her physical recovery at Littlemore Infirmary and now here. She would sit unresponsive all day and all night, not knowing or caring about her surroundings. The nurses and orderlies had to care for all of her needs._

_No stimulant could grab her attention. Not noise, not sight, not heat or cold. Not even a lit match could provoke a response from her. The only thing that indicated that she was alive was her heartbeat and the not-quite dead look in her eyes. It was a subtle sort of horror, that look in a child's eyes._

_"_ _Here we are," Orderly Two announced as he pushed through the doors into the bloodletting room. It would've looked like any other room if it wasn't for the cabinets full of jars of leeches lining the walls. The incredibly large parasites swam around in their jars, their soft bodies brushing against the glass in a revolting fashion. Nurse Pris Witless stood in the center of the room by a bed._

_"_ _Alice Liddell's here, doctor," she said. Dr. Heironymous Q. Wilson looked up the paperwork on the desk and stood to his feet. He was a large man whose hair and beard were just starting to turn white. His expression could be called melancholy as he surveyed the young girl on the gurney. He seemed to care somewhat for her and the sad state that she was in. He shook his head slightly and his facial expression returned to a neutral, businesslike countenance._

_"_ _Very well then. Bruce, Harry, put her on the bed and give her half a dozen leeches, three on each arm. Nurse Witless will supervise. I'll be in the other room if needed." He got up and left the room. Apparently the sight of leeches being allowed to feed on a person disturbed him._

_Not so much with Nurse Witless. She seemed to be truly looking forward to this "treatment."_

_"_ _Right," she barked, "you 'eard the doctor. Get her on the bed and get those leeches on her. A little less blood to her brain just might do the trick." When Bruce and Harry's backs were turned, she quickly took a bottle out from her hat and took a swig._

_She put it back as Bruce none too gently lifted Alice off the gurney onto the bloodletting bed._

_Harry grimaced as he picked up an open jar and carefully slid his hand inside. He made a face and then withdrew his hand, revealing the squirming leech that he grasped by the tail. He lifted the thin creature above its transparent home and touched its mouth to Alice's left arm. As soon as it had fastened on, he let go of it. The leech quit moving around and just sat there as it began to fatten off of Alice's blood. Bruce looked a bit green, while Witless looked satisfied._

_After the repeating the process five more times, Harry and Bruce looked on as six leeches grew large and round on Alice's forearms. There was no change in Alice's demeanor, but there certainly was a difference in her complexion. The first one finally let go and Harry had to scramble to get it back into its jar. Bruce applied a wrapping to the sudden wellspring of blood that blossomed on Alice's arm where the leech had been. He prepared more as the leeches began to slow in their feeding._

_"_ _You think she's feelin' any of that?" he asked nobody in particular._

_Witless shrugged. "Whether she feels it or not isn't any concern of mine. Once the leeches are off, take her back to her room." Witless took another pull at her bottle._

_Alice could feel the leeches drinking her blood. She just didn't care. Her family was dead because she hadn't been able to save them. She had lived while they had been burned alive or suffocated. She didn't care what happened to her anymore. The ones she loved were gone and there wasn't anything for her now. Her family was gone and she was all alone._

**ROTG:AMA-ROTG:AMA-ROTG:AMA**

_August_

Alice shot up in bed, gasping for breath. She hurriedly lit a candle by her bedside and looked all the room. It wasn't the bloodletting room at Rutledge, it was her own familiar, comforting room in the Red Kingdom. No orderlies, no Pris Witless, and no leeches.

With a sigh, Alice set down the candle on her nightstand and hugged her legs to her chest. This was getting tiresome, fast.

About a month and a half ago, she had begun having flashbacks and dreams about her time in the orphanage and in the asylum. She'd have about two or three of these for approximately a week, then they'd disappear only to return about one or two weeks later. Every time they stopped, she'd breathe a sigh of relief, only to have it all dashed when they came back.

The memories were amazingly vivid in their detail; they could have happened just yesterday. The sights, the sounds, the smells, and the sensations were all just as real as they had been when they occurred. It was incredibly similar to the memories that Tooth had given her, except these were of the dark times in her life. The decade she had spent in that awful asylum, her journey to save Wonderland from the Red Queen, her recovery and move to Houndsditch, her sessions with Bumby, and her stand against the Infernal Train and its atrocious conductor.

Each particular one would start out as a flash of images and sounds before proceeding to the finely cut images such as the one that she had just experienced. So far there had been none of the fire and she hoped it stayed that way. She had long grown out of her fear of fire, but she still hated thinking about the launch of her voyage into madness. It was something that would always haunt her, which was a little discouraging considering she was immortal.

"Nightmares, Alice?" Alice was hardly surprised when the Cheshire Cat appeared in front of her, grinning as usual. She had had far more time than necessary to get used to his sudden appearances and disappearances. "Perhaps you shouldn't take tea directly before bed."

"It's not tea, Cat," Alice replied while stifling a yawn. The flashbacks that occurred during slumber weren't often (being a spirit, she didn't need to sleep as much), but they were eating into her rest time like the Walrus devoured unfortunate oysters. Over a hundred years and he hadn't changed a bit in his revolting habits.

"There's no direct cause as far as I can determine," she continued. "The flashbacks are almost random in their occurrence. Day or night, no triggers. Two to four of them within a span of ten days, then nothing for the same period, and they repeat. They're slowly growing in occurrence, but the period in which they occur is a constant."

"Anything else?" the Cat inquired, licking his paw lazily.

"They start as brief, flickering images, then slowly evolve into the most vivid visions I've ever experienced. A perfect record of my tormented past, laid out for all of my senses to see, smell, hear, and touch. It's excruciatingly awful."

The Cat ceased his grinning and cocked his head to one side in thought. "What was the one you just woke from of?"

Alice sighed. "The first time that the Rutledge staff drew blood through the application of leeches. The visions, they're also going further and further back. The first ones were of when I discovered Bumby's true nature during the Dollmaker's Siege and killing him. Then the Siege itself, my time at the orphanage, my defeat of the Red Queen, and now the asylum. At this rate, I'll be reliving the fire in a few weeks."

That thought was alone was too much to think about. She had spent the last one hundred plus years recovering from all of it and she had no desire whatsoever to relive the fire which took her family and destroyed her life. There were some things that, no matter how much time passed and how much healing was done, that one didn't want to revisit.

"Hmm. Have you informed the Guardians of your symptoms? They'd want to know of something like this." Alice looked up in surprise at Cheshire. Most of the time, he advocated self-sufficiency and reliance on one's own skills and ability. This was nothing like him.

"Cat, when have you ever advised going to someone else about my own grievances? This is most unlike you." She saw a chance to snipe at him for his comment about her after-dinner tea. "Perhaps you could afford to reduce your intake of catnip." She knew that he kept a stash of the plant somewhere and would use it whenever he thought that no one was looking.

Cat gave her a look that bordered on a glare. "There are some things that nobody, not even you, can handle on their own. There is something lurking in the dark, Alice."

Alice could have groaned out loud. He always did this; whenever something was out to get Alice, he'd always make a riddle out of it. If it wasn't for that psychotic grin, those eyes, and that penchant for unneeded riddles, he would be quite sane. As it was, she'd deal with it as she normally did.

"I've always been able to take care of myself. What is lurking in the dark, Cat? What evil monstrosity of my mind's dark recesses is hunting me now?" She made sure to sound helpless and pleading to mock him. He hated that.

Sure enough, he lay his ears back against his head. "It is not a product of your twisted imagination that threatens you now. This one is of the outside world and if my intuition doesn't deceive me, is far more manipulative than the Boogeyman and is at least as devious as Bumby ever was. Far more patient, but just as much an atrocity."

"I don't which which is more taxing, Cat: Your riddles. which are almost indecipherable, or North's belly. Next thing I know, Jack will be making fortunes based off the cracks in his staff." Alice wasn't in a good mood to begin with, and Cat wasn't making it any better.

Cheshire gave his own equivalent of a shrug and turned to go. "Both me and his protruding abdomen have been proven right in the past. Ignore me at your own peril, and that of your friends."

Alice looked up sharply at that. "What do you mean by that, Cat?"

He looked over his shoulder at her. "This one thinks that the best way to get to you is through the Guardians. Intelligence is a trait most unwanted in enemies both known and unknown." He disappeared without a sound or another word.

Alice groaned and flopped back on her bed. This was just perfect; she was getting flashbacks of her darker past which disturbed her during the day and kept her up at night, and now some kind of new enemy was on the rise. She would have to tell the Guardians about this new threat, that was for certain. As for her disturbing memories, she could work through those on her own. Those were something personal while this "patient Bumby" was out to get her by going after the Guardians.

Alice tried to remember if she had offended anyone in the outside world. As far as she could determine, she had made no new enemies in the outside world. Besides Pitch Black and the Red Queen, she didn't really have any enemies. There was the occasional Ruin, Madcap, or Bolterfly that would attack her mindlessly, but those were easily taken care of. She remembered that a few spirits were disappointed that she wasn't allowing visits into Wonderland, but they didn't seem the type to want to destroy her and the Guardians out of something as petty as disappointment.

She glanced towards her clock and groaned a second time. Four-thirty in the morning and it was very unlikely that she would be able to go back to sleep after her nightmare/memory. The nights when those occurred were sleepless ones after she awoke from them. She might as well get on with the day.

Alice looked at her calendar as she changed out of her nightgown for her dress. In a few days, there would another Guardian meeting at Santoff Claussen and she would tell them then. It was unlikely that this new foe would attack without her around. Why did they think the best way to hurt her was to hurt her new friends? Over the past year and a half, she had come to view the other Guardians as friends, almost family.

There was one of them that she wasn't sure how she felt. Jack Frost. She had to admit to herself that she found him…attractive. He also seemed to have a calming effect on her. There were times though when she wanted nothing more than to clout him over the head with her Hobby Horse. The completely idiotic things he would do and say had the same effect on her that they had on Bunny: Frustration and headaches. She would usually call him "Frost" until he had somehow managed to work his way back into her good graces. Interestingly, those periods when he was just "Frost" were becoming both shorter and less frequent, and he seemed to be learning how to avoid raising her ire. Those were the times she quite liked his company.

Alice shook her head hard before attending to her shoe buckles. Jack Frost was a friend and a fellow guardian, nothing more, nothing less. Besides, what did she know about romance? She had skipped the preteen and early teenage years during her time at the asylum, voiding those formative years just before adulthood. She knew that others found her attractive, but her prospects in 1870s London hadn't been sunny, not by a long shot. She was destitute, orphaned, and a former asylum inmate. Any real chances she had at a relationship like the one between her mother and father were gone before they had a chance to manifest. There were few decent men in the part of London where she lived and those few didn't see her as someone they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with. So she had just gotten use to the idea that she was going to be alone for some time, possibly for the rest of her life. Which suited her just fine.

By the time she had left for Wonderland, she had had enough of the world and its inhabitants. Most of the wickedness of the world was created by them and now she had a way of escaping it all, physically and not just mentally. Now though, she had a reason to go back. She had seen that innocence and childhood were one of the few things worth protecting in the real world, that there were good people who wanted to do the right thing and help others. Man in the Moon or not, she was a Guardian of Childhood and she would be so until either she was killed or the world ended.

She finished dressing and tidying up and prepared for another day in Wonderland. Hopefully this day wouldn't be as hectic as the last. If she had to listen to the Duchess's complaints about the smoke from the Hatter's domain, or to another of the Dodo's long-winded, nonsensical speeches again, she'd probably scream. Oh well, that was life as the pseudo-Queen of Wonderland for you.

**ROTG:AMA-ROTG:AMA-ROTG:AMA**

_A few real world days later_

Jack Frost was right where he had always wanted to be, and right now, where he didn't want to be: He was in Santa's Workshop and he was stuck in yet another Guardian meeting.

He honestly loved the place where North made his home, which was also the location the Guardians used as their unofficial headquarters. He had tried to break in once every few decades ever since he had learned that Santoff Claussen existed and where it was. That had probably been about twenty years after he became a spirit. Of course, the yetis had always been there to stop him. Phil's father and grandfather had always managed to give Jack the boot every time before passing on the job of Workshop Security to him. He remembered the time when Phil's father, Bartholomew, or Bart, had chased him across the yeti village, swiping at him with his own staff. Phil had watched from the family doorstep, cheering on his father until Jack had been able to grab his staff and fly off.

It was far from his proudest moment, but Jack had found it funny a few hours after the incident. Even today the memory never failed to bring a smile to his face.

"Hey Frostbite, pay attention. We're havin' a meetin' here."

Jack groaned as Bunny unceremoniously dragged him back into the most boring part of his life. "I was paying attention," he protested.

"No you weren't," the pooka replied as Tooth continued her report on the teeth gathering. Her ever-present group of Baby Teeth twittered and giggled over her shoulder at the interruption in Jack's daydreaming. By now Jack had gained a reputation for arriving at the very last minute and then losing himself in his thoughts during the meeting. The only reason he arrived on time at all was thanks to Alice and her threat involving the Sack of Kidnapping.

Jack forced himself to pay attention to Tooth and not to the new toys that were being tested only a dozen yards to his left and a story down. One of the things that he liked to do when in the Workshop was to watch the yetis test North's new ideas. He just wished they would actually let him help. Just because he was Jack Frost didn't mean he couldn't be careful when he wanted to be. Or when he tried to be, that is.

"To conclude, everything's just fine at the Tooth Palace," Tooth finally finished.

"Very good, Tooth." North inflated his barrel-sized chest for his report. "My yetis have finally finished repairing damage done by Night Ruins, and toy production is ahead of schedule. For once." North's expression turned both worried and perplexed. "There is slight problem though."

Sandy gave North a questioning look while a question mark appeared over his head.

"Let me guess." Jack held up a hand. "The elves figured out they really don't make the toys and are planning a rebellion." Bunny groaned out loud while Jack tried his best to hold back a snicker.

" _Nyet,_ the elves are planning no such thing." North glanced towards a group of elves attempting to sew up a poor teddy bear. It looked like a laceration victim whose wounds had all been stitched together. "I hope. Sadly, it's the yetis."

"What's wrong?" Tooth hovered higher and looked around the Workshop. "They've been flossing, right? Toothaches can be incredibly painful or so I'm told."

" _Nyet_ ," sighed North. "I do not know what it is. About year ago, some of the yetis began to see psychiatrist. They were seeing something or someone out of corners of eye, but whenever they turn to see what it is, nothing's there."

Sandy created a sand model of a yeti laying down to sleep.

"They've been getting enough sleep. That was first thing I checked, nor has work been harder." North rubbed his eyes. This problem was getting incredibly frustrating.

"Why didn't we hear about this before, mate?" Bunny asked, raising an eyebrow. "If it started a whole year ago, you should have told us sooner."

"I tell you now because nearly every yeti in workshop has seen this _prizrak,_ and I am at end of rope trying to figure it out." North leaned back in his seat and sighed heavily.

"Alice, what do you think?" Jack asked. He looked over to their newest Guardian and was surprised to see her head bowed. "Alice? Alice!"

Alice shot up and looked around hurriedly. "Oh, my apologies. What was the topic of discussion?"

Jack couldn't help but give her a weird look. Most of the time she was incredibly attentive to the meetings. In fact, if it wasn't Bunny prodding him to pay attention, it was Alice. Falling asleep at their meetings, that was something that not even he dared to do. The last thing he wanted to do was experience one of Bunny's boomerangs colliding with the back of his head.

"The yetis have been seeing something, a _prizrak_ , out of the corners of their eyes, but there's nothing there when they turn to it," Tooth explained quickly.

Alice scrunched her face in thought. "What does your yeti psychiatrist think of it?"

"He is as baffled as I," North replied. "Worse, he begins to see it shortly after last meeting."

"Have the elves been experiencing anything similar?" Alice inquired, deep in thought. If they could identify which group or groups was experiencing these…visions, they might be able to find a common stimulant or cause.

North frowned. "Not that I know of. I will ask them later."

"And why do you call it a _prizrak_? What is that specifically?" North had a habit of substituting the words of his native language when his English failed him. It was an interesting way to learn the language.

"Closest English words are 'ghost' or 'spirit.'" North answered, stroking his chin in thought. "Some of the yetis say it looks like person. One even said it looked like human woman before he turned to get better look."

"I bet he tried to get a better look," Jack said, winking. Bunny and Alice both gave him their respective "you're-an-idiot" looks while Tooth shook her head at him.

North cleared his throat. "I will ask elves if they have seen anything. Hopefully, it won't take too long. Now, how are things with you two?" He gestured to Alice and Jack, smiling. "I hear two new Guardians are getting more believers."

"Thank the Burgess Bunch," Jack grinned, leaning back in his seat. "They're the ones spouting the good news about us." He narrowed his eyes in thought. "Just wondering, how did you guys get kids to believe in you in the first place?"

"Most of our first believers were children that we were friends with before we became spirits," Tooth explained. "They told others about each one of us, and our stories spread throughout the ages. They changed, obviously, but it was always enough for the belief in us to continue."

North nodded in agreement. "And how is Wonderland, Alice?"

Alice's head had been starting to nod, but she jerked it up when she heard her name. "It's well," she slurred. Shaking her head, she continued more clearly. "There's still been no sign of the Red Queen, and I've finally gotten around to cleaning up the Looking-Glass Line."

Bunny muttered something under his breath at the mention of the Red Queen, to which Alice took no notice. Jack couldn't help but notice the slump in the girl's shoulders, along with the bags under her eyes and the red coloration of the whites of her eyes. She looked pretty awful, but he knew better than to tell her that.

"Any unfinished business?" North asked. Alice was the only one to raise her hand. "Yes Alice?"

Alice cleared her throat as quietly as possible. "Cheshire recently told me that 'there is something lurking in the dark.' Apparently, we have a new enemy, one that is targeting me specifically."

The other Guardians stared at her for a moment. Finally, Tooth spoke up. "Did he say who it was?"

"Only that our new adversary is of the real world, that he or she is more manipulative than Pitch Black, and is as devious as the Dollmaker while being far more patient." Alice thought about what else Cat had told her. "They also prefer an indirect method of attack, as they think the best way to harm me is through all of you."

"Oh boy," groaned Bunny. "Alice, please tell us this was recent and not a year ago like whatever's goin' on with the yetis."

Alice gave the pooka one of her infamous "looks." Usually it was Jack on the receiving end. "As a matter of fact, it was a few real world days ago that Cheshire told me this. I would have mentioned it sooner, but I've been sleep-deprived."

Jack decided to pipe up. "You know, if you want to sleep, I'm sure Sandy wouldn't mind lending you some of his dreamsand. The stuff is pretty potent."

"From past experience, that is very true," North commented. Sandy floated up to Alice and held out a ball of dreamsand to her.

Alice gave the little man a quick smile. "I'll take some after lunch, thank you very much. Now," she returned to the previous subject, "what can we do about this enemy? Could it be someone that we already know?"

Tooth began to float up and down, her fairies mimicking her. She always found this conducive to thought. "If you're the target, what is the motive? You've only been an official Guardian for a short while now. Besides Pitch, I can't think of anyone that would hold a grudge against you."

"Maybe it's some relative of Bumby's that became a spirit or something," Jack suggested, rubbing the wood on his staff thoughtfully. "Or it's one of those spirits that wanted to see Wonderland."

"I think we would have heard about a new spirit by know," Bunny retorted. "Far as we know, Alice is the newest spirit in the world. A relative of Bumby's would have had to show up before or after she came along."

North was glancing at the six-pointed star in front of the globe controls with great concern written over his face. The star was basically a mural of the Guardians and also housed the only real method of communication between them and Manny. Before anyone could notice, he shook his head and turned his attention back to the others.

"We all have our duties which draw us apart, making us easy targets. If we stay at the Pole to keep safe, we can't be there for the children," Tooth reasoned. "If this enemy is going to target all of us, we need a method of quick communication. The question is, what would work?"

There was a moment of silence as everyone considered this. Sandy suddenly shot up in the air, smiling. He floated over to Tooth and formed a few sand fairies over his head, gesturing to them. Tooth didn't notice, she was thinking too hard. Sandy dissipated the sand fairies and pointed to her fairies, trying to get her attention.

"I got it," Bunny yelled out. "Tooth, you remember how you knew from your fairies when Pitch was attackin' the Tooth Palace, through that telepathy thing of yours?"

Tooth gasped. "Aster, that's brilliant. I can just send some of my fairies to each of our homes to keep watch. If anything happens to one of us, I'll know and so will the ones at everyone else's." She finally noticed Sandman standing next to her. "I'm sorry Sandy, did come up with something?"

Sandy shrugged his shoulder disappointedly and shook his head. It was really hard being mute sometimes.

"I think Baby Tooth has me covered," Jack said, looking nervously at the fairies over Tooth's shoulder. The instant Tooth finished Bunny's idea for him, they had all started chittering amongst themselves excitedly and looking towards him. Their collective crush on him was cute at best, but he didn't need a swarm of Baby Teeth crooning over him twenty-four/seven. Baby Tooth chose that moment to fly over to Jack and position herself over his shoulder. Disappointed, the other fairies all lost a few inches in elevation.

"They couldn't go to Wonderland, though," Tooth remembered. "I lost my connection to Baby Tooth when she was in there."

"Wonderland is isolated from the real world." Alice yawned, hurriedly closing her mouth. "I don't think whoever we're dealing with will have the slightest notion on how to infiltrate it."

"So," North began, "we let some of tooth fairies in each of our homes until we catch villain, except for Wonderland. If villain attacks one of us, we all learn about it and come down on his head." He cracked the knuckles in his hands. "Villain will not know what hit him. Problem solved. Now," he boomed out suddenly, "who wants to adjourn meeting and go to lunch?"

"Any more unfinished business?" called out Bunny. Jack had to groan to himself. The rabbit always made sure that was their meetings were as procedural as possible. When no one said anything, Bunny nodded. "Meeting adjourned. Let's go get some grub."

Jack banged his staff against the ground like a judge's gravel before shooting off towards the dining room. Bunny rolled his eyes as the others followed him.

**ROTG:AMA-ROTG:AMA-ROTG:AMA**

Alice nearly fell asleep twice during the brief luncheon. Between that and the paper she doodled on in her waking moments, she contributed very little to the conversation, which ranged from possible enemies all the way to the health benefits of peppermint.

She couldn't help but curse her drowsiness. The flashbacks that occurred during sleep were the worst ones as it was difficult to turn her mind to other things afterwards. The one she had before coming to the meeting had woken her at least five hours before she had wished to rise. It had been of the day when Dr. Wilson had started with preliminary tests, attempting to get an idea on how to cure her. The memory itself wasn't traumatic, but it wouldn't be long before Littlemore Infirmary, and then the fire. If the flashbacks continued to go further and further back into her past, that is.

_'_ _If it gets to that degree, I'm going to talk with Tooth about my teeth. I shouldn't be reliving these memories to the extent that I am.'_

Alice had already gone through the memories that Tooth had given her, hypothesizing that her bad experiences had somehow found their way into the purity and innocence of her childhood. The search had been utterly fruitless, which part of her found to be a relief. She didn't want those beautiful days sullied by her worst nightmares. They were far too precious.

She didn't notice what Jack was saying to her until she heard her name repeated. "Beg pardon, my attention was elsewhere. You were saying, Jack?" Alice rubbed the sleep from her eyes. This was getting ridiculous very quickly.

Jack gave her an odd look. Spirits weren't supposed to get sleep-deprived. They didn't need as much as mortals did. He supposed that if an immortal went for a while without rest and then crashed, an unwanted wake-up could cause the drowsy symptoms Alice was showing.

"I said, 'you want that dreamsand now?'" he repeated. The first time he had asked, he had meant it as a joke.

"After lunch," Alice muttered.

"I think we're about done," Jack told her. Alice looked up to see that the Guardians were ready to disperse. Bunny was tapping a foot impatiently against the ground as Tooth ordered groups of fairies to each of the Guardians' homes. Alice had to smile at the idea of Bunny being accompanied by a swarm of tooth fairies throughout the Warren. The only thing more entertaining than the idea of the grumpy pooka being followed around by the brightly-colored, chirping creatures was what would happen if Tooth sent a similar swarm to Jack's instead of just Baby Tooth.

Personally, she was glad that the little creatures couldn't follow her to Wonderland. It wasn't that she didn't like them, quite the contrary. She just didn't want to have to go through the trouble of protecting a dozen or so tooth fairies when she had a hard enough time protecting herself. Wonderland was no place for the inexperienced interloper, let alone ones their size.

"Let me guess," Jack suddenly interrupted her thoughts. "You saw Cheshire grinning just before you went to bed."

Alice stared at him for a moment before it clicked in her head what he meant. Jack was trying to guess the cause of her insomnia. The winter spirit could be very nosy when he wanted to be.

"Hardly," she replied. She was finding it hard to piece together sentences. "I highly doubt that his manic smile would ever be the cause of my restlessness. I've seen far worse things. Additionally, I've had over a century to accustom myself to his facial expressions and to him. The latter is still a bit of a challenge sometimes," she admitted.

"With him, everything's a challenge," Jack muttered. "What's been keeping you up then? Dreams of me?" He gave her a grin of his own.

Alice suppressed the urge to groan. Part of her liked the attention (which she would never admit of course), while that part's polar opposite wanted her to slap that grin off his smirking face.

_'_ _He's not as bad as those sailors that frequented the Mangled Mermaid, thankfully,'_ she reflected.

Alice considered rebuffing him for asking, but decided to give him a watered-down version, along with a quick lesson in etiquette. "Excusing how rude it is to enquire of a lady's sleeping habits, I had a flashback of my time at the asylum while I was asleep. It wasn't troubling in and of itself, it just reminded me of the other things I endured there."

Jack craned his head trying to get a better look at what Alice was drawing. "If those squares are days, that's a lot of days." He gave her a searching look. "If that's a record of flashbacks…."

Alice picked up the paper and folded it in half, frowning. "It is, and it's nothing that you should concern yourself about. I've dealt with stuff like this before. Besides, these are Wonderland days: A few hours here are a few days there." As she got up from the table with the paper firmly in her hand, Alice decided that Jack needed to be teased for once. "I never would have pegged you as the absent-minded type, Jack. That's my specialty as you should know."

Jack's head snapped up. "I'm not absent-minded. I'm busy… with a lot of things," he finished rather pitifully.

"Yes, I suppose Jack Frost is frightfully busy flying around and freezing windows," Alice retorted sarcastically as she walked up to Sandy. "Sandman, would it be possible to put your dreamsand into a jar or other such container? I believe that I'll take a nap in my guest room." She really needed to rest.

Jack tried to think of a good comeback as Sandy happily nodded and formed a ball of floating sand within a teacup and gave it to Alice. The other Guardians began to disperse, bidding each other farewell and leaving for home (except for North). They all had about a dozen of Tooth's fairies hovering over their shoulder (which was normal for Tooth), except for Jack (who had Baby Tooth) and Alice.

"Hooroo, Alice," Bunny said as he tapped his foot against the ground, summoning a hole. "Anythin' odd happens in Wonderland, you give us a holler."

"Yes Bunny, though I doubt I'll need to," Alice replied, giving him a quick smile. It wasn't like there were that many ways into Wonderland, something for which she was grateful. Besides, who would be idiotic or insane enough to attack her in her own world, surrounded by all manner of dangerous creatures and perils? This enemy either knew of Wonderland's dangers, or they were just plain sadistic, seeing as they were going after the Guardians to get to her. Either way, they would regret going after the Guardians much more than making of her an enemy without just cause.

"Just wondering," Jack saw fit to break her train of thought right then, "Why is time in Wonderland like that? A few hours here is a few days there."

Alice thought about it as she began making her way back to her room for a quick nap. Jack's questions about the nature of Wonderland were sometimes irksome and stimulating at the same time. Irksome because it seemed that he would always come up with a new question soon after the last was answered, stimulating because it gave her a reason to think why something was the way it was. She remembered when she herself asked a lot of questions in her childhood. Deep down she was still curious about things, she just kept them to herself now.

The time discrepancy between her old make-believe world and the real one made for some interesting thought. "I suppose it's that way because I dreamed it up first. Dreams have a tendency of lengthening the time one is asleep, as least from the perspective of the dreamer."

Jack nodded in thought. That made sense, which was strange since they were talking about Wonderland of all places. So far he and Bunny were the only Guardians to brave the pocket dimension. He knew Tooth secretly craved a visit ever since Baby Tooth had presented her with that huge golden cuspid from Wonderland. Tooth had been ecstatic to learn that Wonderland used teeth as its main currency, something which Jack found a little weird. At least, the teeth had no blood or gums on them. That would be just plain disgusting.

Jack suddenly grinned as a thought came to his mind. "Lengthening the time, huh? This has some interesting implications." He floated ahead of Alice, subtlety (in his mind) noting all getaway routes.

Alice noticed his smirk and his eyes darting all over the place, plotting out his escape. _'Men. They honestly have no idea just how obvious they are.'_ She stopped in the middle of the hallway and fixed him with a look. "Jack, I suggest that you either spit out whatever inane witticism is going through your head, or keep it to yourself."

Jack raised his hands in surrender. "Alright your highness, you saw right through me. If Wonderland days are hours here, and you spent over a century in there…." He stopped and smiled.

_'_ _Not that idiotic smile again. I didn't think it possible for anyone besides Cheshire to develop a facial expression as infuriating as his.'_ "Yes?" Alice crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes at Jack.

Jack lowered his voice as though he was telling her a secret beyond imagining. "It means that you're really old, maybe older than Sandy." As Alice's mouth dropped open, Jack shot away down the hall and out a window, laughing.

"Jack Frost, you despicable, little cockroach, get back here at once," Alice yelled after him. She turned to Baby Tooth, who was about to follow Jack in his retreat. "What in heaven's name do you see in that weasel?"

Baby Tooth paused to give Alice a short lecture in her birdlike language before heading off after Jack. To Baby Tooth's mind, there was no one more attractive or charming than Jack Frost. It wasn't her fault that the mean girl couldn't see that. It was what Jack saw in Alice that had Baby Tooth puzzled.

Alice glared after the winter spirit and his fairy admirer before continuing to her guest room. The story of her relationship with Jack: Getting along while bickering and sniping at each other constantly until one of them went too far. She would refer to him as "Frost" while he called her "Lady Liddell" or some other such rubbish. This would continue until one of them apologized, after which they would repeat the cycle. It was a wonder that they hadn't torn each other's heads off. The periods where they were angry with each other were getting progressively shorter and shorter, however.

Alice finally came to her room. She closed the door behind her and faced the bed, almost smiling in anticipation. "I'll have to find an appropriate way to thank Sandy after this," she sighed. She so desperately needed to sleep. As far as she could tell, the period where no flashbacks occurred had just begun, so she didn't have to worry about any of those disturbing her slumber.

She sat down at the foot of the bed and held the teacup in her hand. _'Off to the dream Wonderland. Then again, I could do without any real dreams, thank you very much.'_ Alice was about to pour the dreamsand over her head when it happened.

_She was sitting up in bed, having been awoken by her alarmed Wonderland friends. She could smell smoke coming from somewhere and she could hear the crackling of wood burning._

_She was standing by her bedroom door. She barely registered how hot the door handle was before she was looking into the inferno that was the hall, just as a blast of fire followed the stream of fresh oxygen directly to her._

_She was at her bedroom window, screaming as the flames licked at her nightgown and at her. She could hear her parents crying for her to get out and for Lizzie to wake up. She could hear their pain in their voices, the pain of them burning alive._

_She was in the snow. Bunny was standing over her, trying to comfort her as her house burned. She could see the flames licking at the roof directly behind him. She realized that her parents and Lizzie were dead. Bunny vanished before her eyes and she slid down into the snow, utterly alone in the world._

Alice gasped out aloud as the vision passed before her eyes. The teacup shattered on the floor as she sat on her bed, trying desperately to breathe. That…that shouldn't be happening. The fire, the deaths of her family, she was reliving them right now! What was wrong with her? Was she starting to lose her mind again? Those memories were locked deep within her mind, not in some magic baby teeth box with her happiest, brightest days. This. Wasn't. Remotely. Possible.

Catching her breath, Alice had enough presence of mind to reach down and grab some dreamsand before it could dissipate. She managed to gather up the shards of the cup without dropping what sand remained, earning a few small cuts on her palms and fingers. She left the pieces of the cup along with the chart on her desk as she ran into the bathroom. Within moments, she turned the mirror into a portal to Wonderland and disappeared into it.

She reappeared in the Looking-Glass chamber deep in the Red Kingdom. As the swirling kaleidoscope of colors that was a Wonderland portal turned back into a floor-to-ceiling mirror behind her, Alice alternated between running and dodging to her bedroom. When she got there, she sat down on her as she tried to catch her breath. A few tears made her way down her face as she went over what had just happened.

_'_ _I'm not insane. I recovered. I'm fine. My time as a mental asylum inmate is done. Then WHY are these images from my past haunting me now?! All I want is to live my life in peace without these horrific reminders of the worst period of my existence. All they do is wound my heart and soul and mind.'_

Shaking, Alice lifted the dreamsand above her head, prayed for a deep sleep without dreams, and released the precious cargo. Her head hit the pillow an instant later. No figures made of golden sand danced above her head, no dreams afflicted or eased her slumber. Alice was dead to both of the worlds, alone. The only movement in the room was of her steady breathing and of the tears that slid down her face and ruined her make-up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something's up with Alice's memories. Is it happening on its own, or are Lyssa's vile hands at work here? I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. If you have any ideas or suggestions of your own for this fic, a comment is a good way to communicate it.
> 
> Until next time, strange crossover-lovers of the world!


	4. Infiltration

**Infiltration**

When Alice awoke, she felt like she looked in the mirror: Awful. She had slept for nearly twenty-three hours; her body was rested while her mind was still a whir. She looked very much like the time she had that Night Terror in Santoff Claussen, courtesy of Pitch Black. She couldn't help but wonder if this look was going to become normal for her: Hair a rat's nest, skin pale and cold, eyes bloodshot, eye shadow a mess, At least she didn't feel like a lifeless husk, though she certainly looked the part.

She doubted that he would be able to do this to her; she would have known by now if Pitch had managed to sneak into Wonderland and into her head. Additionally, it was practically impossible to get inside someone's imagination unless they were asleep. Alice didn't know what would happen if she were to be in someone else's Wonderland when they awoke, and she didn't want to find out.

As Alice washed her face and drew herself a bath, she thought over the events of the day before. There was literally _nothing_ that would have triggered such an attack. Attack; it was a strong word, but that flashback had been so intense, so vivid. The best word for it was attack. The questions were, why and how?

Why was she experiencing these horrific flashbacks, and how was she remembering these events in such detail? She could remember wanting to forget the fire as that wretch Bumby had instructed, believing it was the best road to recovery, but neither did she want to relive every agonizing second of the fire and her family's deaths.

_'_ _Is that too much of a request? That I find a middle ground between selective amnesia and crippling recollection? I want to remember Papa, Mama, and Lizzie in our joyful days, I don't want to live in fear and dread of the next flashback, of the pain that haunted me for so long.'_

Alice sank down into her warm bathwater and turned her mind to things less traumatizing. Everything had been going so well with her being a Guardian. It had taken her a while, but she had begun to see that there was some good in the cruel world. The joy in the eyes of the children who saw her and their questions into Wonderland and its inhabitants caused something in her that she hadn't felt until her reunion with Bunnymund: Joy. It was a tad awkward (just like the reunion) as she was still getting used to children and their innocence again. She had to answer their questions carefully as the real Wonderland was still dangerous in some ways.

She smirked to herself as she remembered Jack recounting the time Sophie managed to get into the Warren and the Guardians' collective lack of experience with real children. Baby teeth, with blood and gums? Alice's silent laughter, which caused ripples through the tub, was tempered by the reaction she knew Sophie would have if she could have seen Wonderland during the Red Queen's Reign, or when the Infernal Train was on the rampage.

She knew why Pitch Black had been so interested in her. The twisted caricatures of her old Wonderland retreat would inspire fear in the hearts of many, both children and adults, if they knew the truth. And Alice had no intention of the innocent being marred by the sick reality of her imagination, crazed by pain, loss, and guilt in the halls of Rutledge Asylum. Pitch could want her imagination all he wanted; he wasn't getting back in now that he had tried to destroy the Guardians a second time by unleashing the Dollmaker.

"Attempting to drown your sorrows in bathwater, Alice? You'd have more luck with a bottle of gin at this point."

Alice jumped and looked around for Cheshire. She finally realized that he was speaking from behind her locked bathroom door.

"You've been practicing ventriloquism, haven't you?" Alice snapped. "For a moment, I thought you had forgotten all notions of privacy and modesty."

Cheshire snorted. "Far be it from me to invade a young lady's privacy when she's in a bathtub. I learned that skill just to avoid raising my voice. I take it that the Guardians' get-together wasn't productive?"

"On the contrary. I informed them of your warning and we took appropriate measures to counter this new threat." Alice picked up the bar of soap and begin to lather up. Time to make use of the available cleaning supplies.

"Appropriate measures, hmmm? I would hardly call a swarm of tooth fairies, as far-reaching as the Tooth Fairy's mental connection to them is, appropriate for what is coming."

Alice could hear the derisive sneer in his voice. "Oh, and do you have a better plan?" She sneered in return. Cheshire hated it whenever someone imitated the tone he had just used on them.

"Let me point out the weaknesses of the Russian's plan first. To start, you are all separated by vast distances that are impossible to cover in a timely fashion without his snow globes. Second, you, who are the true target, have no way to communicate with the outside world if something happens here." Alice could imagine Cheshire checking off his points with his toes. "And third, I truly doubt the 'coming down on villain's head' part will work the way he imagines it will."

"And what is your suggestion?" Alice replied testily as she finished washing the bubbles out of her hair. She couldn't really argue with Cheshire's first point; North relied so much on his snow globes that he likely didn't think about the others' lack of them. The second point was invalid as she saw it; there was only one way into Wonderland, and that was safe with Bunny.

The third item could go either way; they could tear their new enemy "a new one", as Jack so eloquently put it, or this foe could prove stronger or more cunning than they imagined.

"Safety in numbers. All of you should hole up somewhere safe and let your adversary come to you." Alice could hear the insufferable pride in his own intelligence. Cheshire had always had an elevated opinion in himself and his abilities. Alice supposed it was a trait universal to all felines.

"Didn't you say that your 'lurker in the dark' is intelligent and manipulative?" Alice countered as she climbed out of the tub and began to towel off. "The situation would devolve into a waiting game if we did that, both sides stalling and hoping for the other to make a grievous error."

"You say that as though it's a bad thing. Then again, you were never were one for waiting, were you, Alice? I believe the Hatter has referred to you as 'Miss Hammerhead' because of your tendency to directly attack your problems. An effective strategy in most cases, but predictable by now."

Alice rolled her eyes as she finished drying off and pulled her dress on. "That's the approach that's worked for me in the past, Cheshire. I see no advantage in changing it now."

Alice jumped as Cheshire appeared in front of her. She had just pulled her socks on, but she still blushed at the fact that she hadn't had a stitch of clothing on a few minutes earlier. "Would it inconvenience you to warn me first before doing that?" she hissed.

"Yes, it would." Cheshire said snidely. "Sends my train of thought off its track."

"I didn't know you had a train of thought. I always imagined your mind as slinking around in dark corners," Alice retorted.

Cheshire gave her a dirty look. "Maybe I'll just drop by North's and give him my input since you don't consider my advice noteworthy anymore."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Very well, I'll tell the others your idea at the soonest opportunity. And before you mention my sixteen hundred winks, I used some of Sandy's dreamsand to knock myself unconscious."

"Cats everywhere would just love that sand of his," Cheshire purred.

"I thought cats slept two-thirds of their lives away, they don't need anymore," Alice said as she maneuvered around Cheshire and opened the door. He followed her as she entered her room. "Again, before you ask, I recalled a very vivid and disturbing memory prior to returning to Wonderland."

"Let me guess: The fire." Cheshire studied the oversized Venus flytrap that rested on a small table next to Alice's window. He believed the gift was very appropriate for Alice. She wasn't sure if that was a compliment or an insult. It was possibly both, as this was Cheshire.

Alice sat down and sighed heavily. "Yes, it was of the fire and of my parents crying for me to get out. Before you say something to the tune of 'I told you so', I'll talk with Tooth about this the next time I see her. The Guardian of Memory should know a few things about unwanted, traumatizing flashbacks."

Cheshire gave his equivalent of a shrug. "Or she might not have a single notion on how to help you. The Guardians are a force for good, but they are far too cheerful for their own good. Though I have to admit," the glow of his orange eyes somehow took on an almost tender shine, "the Tooth Fairy is quite appealing, for something with feathers."

"She blames Pitch for a nightmare she had," Alice smirked as she pulled her boots on. "In the dream, you two had taken the vows of matrimony. I can't imagine a worse fate for any female, unless she was a fellow feline, of course." She added the last bit just for his sake.

Cheshire sniffed and flicked his tail. "I can think of weddings far stranger, without the fear of a nightmare associated with them. Kindly send her my regards when you next see her."

"I'll make a note of it," Alice replied. As Cheshire began to vanish, Alice had a thought cross her mind. _'What had he meant by "weddings far stranger"? There's always a double meaning present when he utters something like that.'_ Alice was startled out of her reverie by Cheshire suddenly making a reappearance. "Did you forget to spout out another dire warning or sarcastic remark about the Guardians, Cat?"

Cheshire put his nose in the air. "I just recalled that after much strenuous pondering, I know why the Man in the Moon, if he exists, chose you to be a Guardian."

Alice raised her eyebrows. "Do tell." She sat down on her bed and gave Cheshire her full attention.

Cheshire was simply oozing with pride at his feline wit and mind, evidenced by his smirk and his happily-lashing tail. "What do you have that none of the other Guardians possess?"

Alice glared at him. He was going to riddle her as usual. _'Why am I not in a state of astonishment?'_ "A knife that can appear out of thin air," she guessed half-heartedly.

Cheshire stopped grinning for a moment. "Why do I even bother attempting to sharpen your wits? No one even tries these days." He shook his head. "Unlike the other Guardians, you have seen an exploiter of children, a true monster, at work, and you have faced and vanquished him. The Boogeyman is truly a wicked, depraved creature, but in the face of the Dollmaker, Pitch Black cannot hold a candle to an evil of that magnitude.

"You have suffered like none of them have," He continued. "Tooth lost her parents to the Monkey King, Bunny lost his entire race, and Jack was an amnesiac for three hundred years, after which he learned that he died shortly before transmuting into a spirit. Sad and terrible things, yes, but you lost yourself to madness. And by saving yourself from it, you can be a light to the children that know of similar suffering." He winked at her. "Have a very pleasant day, Alice."

With Cheshire now gone, Alice considered what he had said. It was just the sort of thing that Cheshire would think up with that Wonderland logic of his. She, the very antithesis of smiles and happiness, the emblem of suffering and pain, could do something that none of her new friends could. Out of all the Guardians, she had been the one most unlikely to be chosen, and that was why Manny had chosen her. She could emphasize with those children who had never known the joy that others had, those who knew of life's hurts and cruelties, and she could be a light to them.

Alice noticed "her" books lying by her bed and picked up _Alice in Wonderland._ She opened and looked through the pages. Even though she had long ago matured from that childish dislike for books without pictures, she still liked Carroll's books for their very beautiful pictures. They weren't accurate, of course, but she still loved them. She couldn't help but wonder what would have happened to her and to Wonderland if tragedy hadn't struck her family, if Bumby had never met the Liddell family and Lizzie, or if Lizzie had told their parents exactly what Bumby had been up to with her.

_'_ _If I had been spared the suffering I endured and my childhood had been a happy normal one, I suppose Wonderland would have faded into the oblivion that comes with adulthood. Perhaps I would have remembered, and these books would have been authored by "Alice Liddell". If it meant seeing my family again, yes, I would sacrifice Wonderland and all my creations in it. I just hope I would still be able to perceive Mr. Bunnymund as I grew.'_

Alice set the book down as her thoughts drifted towards Bunny and her new friends.

**ROTG:AMA-ROTG:AMA-ROTG:AMA**

_One week later_

"I'm tellin' ya, I don't need to be followed around all day long. I'm not some rug rat that needs watchin'."

Bunny had to admit his idea had been a smart one, but its practice was getting old fast. It had been alright the first couple of days. He had shown the tooth fairies around the Warren and introduced them to the egg statues that called the Warren home and acted as caretakers and guards when he was absent. They also got along well with the eggs. They had a lot in common: Small, cute, sidekicks to a Guardian (just don't tell them that).

The issue was that the tooth fairies were too good at their jobs of watching over them. Apparently they took whatever their "Mother" told them very seriously. He hadn't had a moment's peace since they had arrived with him via his Tunnels. Everywhere he went, they went. He tried to look after some of the Warren's local flora, they would pester him trying to help. He wouldn't have noticed them if they weren't chittering and chattering all the time. It was just their language, of course, but it grated on your nerves after a few days.

There was also the issues they had with his dental hygiene. He flossed and brushed as Tooth said he should, but they always found fault with the way he did it. He didn't see why; he only had one filling and that was from before he became a spirit. Two nights ago he had woken up to find the tooth fairies propping his mouth open so that they could clean his buck teeth with some toothpicks. After shooing them back to the nooks and crannies where they made their various beds, he had slept the rest of the night facedown. He couldn't stop sneezing the next morning from all the dirt he had breathed in through his nose.

Right now, the hummingbird-like tooth gatherers were all scolding him (he assumed) and seemed to be talking about him and his habits regarding his teeth. Something told him that he going to get a lecture from Tooth the next time he saw her. He'd rather go one-on-one with Pitch; that woman was just plain terrifying when she was angry. If you needed proof, just ask the Boogeyman about the last tooth he lost. It hadn't been a baby tooth.

Bunny suddenly smiled as an idea came to the forefront of his mind. _'Why didn't I think of this sooner?'_ He looked past the fairies as if someone was coming up behind them. "Hey Frost, here to visit the fairies?"

In an instant, every single tooth fairies' face lit up with undisguised joy. They all shot around, somehow avoiding whiplash, to behold nothing but empty air and grass. When they turned back to Bunny, all they saw was his pooka tail disappearing around a corner, accompanied by his rare laughter.

It took the fairies half an hour to find him. He was sunning himself on a rock with a peaceful look on his face when they suddenly appeared above his head, chirping angrily and resting their hands on their hips, just like Tooth did when she was mad. Now that he thought about it, the tooth fairies did look rather intimidating given their numbers and those long, sharp beaks of theirs….

With a loud sigh, Bunny got to his feet. "Alright, you found me," he said. "Just thought I'd brighten your lives with the thought of seein' Frostbite. Not sure what you little blighters or Alice see in him, but that's your business." Bunny sighed again as the fairies doubled their volume. He couldn't tell when they stopped arguing with him about their merits as compared to Alice's, and when they started arguing amongst themselves as to who would win Jack's heart.

Bunny had to admit that he found the fairies' collective crush on Jack and Alice's effect on North's elves to be equally hilarious. He just knew better than to mention it to either party. _'What is with those two and attractin' the helpers of other Guardians? Well, "helpers" in the elves' case. Crikey, it's a good thing my googies aren't girls or boys.'_

Unlike the completely male elves or the female fairies, his eggs were asexual. The "googies", as he affectionately called them, were born from the flowers that grew in the Warden. They would have been like a warning clock to him if he didn't see calendars regularly on his runs through the world. About a week or so before Easter, the flowers stopped producing pollen or seeds and instead clamped up, signaling that the eggs were on their, soon to be colored and sent out into the world with their message of spring's hope.

Bunny always felt his happiest whenever it was Easter. However, there was always a bit of grief that he buried deep down within himself. When the googies retracted their legs when he found a hiding place for them, they became real, hard-boiled googies. Bunny didn't know if they died or if they had been truly living in the first place. That was the only sorrowful thing he felt whenever it was Easter time. The Easters where it had really bothered him had been the ones immediately after Alice's disappearance from Littlemore Infirmary.

The only years that held a candle to the pain and sorrow he had felt in that decade had been the years directly after he became a spirit, after the extinction of the Pooka race. To become immortal when the rest of your species, everyone you had ever known and cared for was dead, it had been torture. The only reason he had been able to go on had been hope. As angry as he had been at the world and the hurt it had inflicted upon him, his hope was what had given him purpose and meaning.

Making friends hadn't been easy for him given his temperament and the losses he had experienced. Over time, he learned that the world wasn't out to get him and how to make friends again. The Guardians had helped greatly with the last bit. When Alice came into his life, he found himself finally forgetting about the pain he had endured at the beginning of his second life. When her family was killed in the fire and then she herself had vanished, his emotional state relapsed. That agony had been the reason he had become impersonal and almost business-like when it came to children.

Forming emotional connections to the little ankle-biters hadn't come naturally to him, even after Alice had returned as a spirit. Ironically, it was Jack Frost, one of the people he disliked the most and the perpetrator of the Blizzard of '68, who had been able to break that barrier with one little snowflake. Sophie had taken it from there as he had shown her and the other Guardians the Warren and the egg-painting.

The brief joy and peace he had experienced then had been shattered like a stained-glass window hiding an apocalyptic wasteland. Pitch's Nightmares had stampeded through the Tunnels, massacring the googies and denying them their birthright, to spread joy as symbols of hope and Easter for the world's children. When that one kid had walked right through him, it had reminded him of when Alice had stopped believing in him. As he felt his power and himself fading, he knew that his last visit to Alice had truly been his last. He would become powerless, and from there, would be easy pickings for Pitch. He would never see Alice again, and she would never learn why his visits stopped. Without Manny's choice of her as a Guardian, she never would have left Wonderland, even to find him.

Now that Alice was a Guardian, Bunny couldn't help but feel that his world was now complete. As he went along with the rest of his day, the tooth fairies constantly at his shoulder, he reflected on all the things that were part of his existence that, at certain points, he thought he would never have again. Friends, family; these simple things, so simple and yet so essential. He knew one thing for certain: He would never take any of the things he had for granted.

It was getting late when Bunny and the fairies to the den which he used as a bedroom. The Warren's own light would fade into darkness as the sun above set on the Australian Outback. It was almost too dark to see when Bunny set up the lamp and lit it. He had considered getting an electric lamp, but there were no electrical outlets for it and there never would be. He liked the Warren just as it was, though there was a possibility he could create a magical source of electricity. He just hadn't thought about it in a while.

There were many places in the Warren like this one; an earthen hollow big enough to be a room for someone his size. What separated it from the rest was the objects which cluttered it. Painting supplies, gardening tools, spare boomerangs, books on Tai Chi along with the original copies of _Alice in Wonderland_ and _Through the Looking-Glass_ , along with some other miscellaneous objects which firmly labelled the place as Bunny's bedroom.

"Alright ya stickybeaks," Bunny yawned. "Time for bed. See you all in the mornin'." He watched as the tooth fairies went to the places that they had picked to sleep at night before blowing the lamp out and setting it down. He took off his boomerang holster and hung it from a peg in the wall before lying down on the blanket he used for a bed and curling up in it. Being a bunny, he didn't need a mattress like most sentient beings. Feeling his heavy eyes take their desired position, Bunny reached to the pocket where he kept the bag of Wonderland marbles and patted it. "Don't you worry, Alice. I won't let some psychotic wanker come after you. They'll have to deal with me first." He closed his eyes and began to drift off. His last conscious thought was _'And if they come after me first, they're in for one heck of a surprise.'_

**ROTG:AMA-ROTG:AMA-ROTG:AMA**

Half an hour after Bunny's breathing slowed to a gentle, rhythmic in-and-out, joining the fairies in slumber, all was quiet in the Warren and in Bunny's den. The egg statues outside stood watch over the ruins of the subterranean temple, ever watchful for any suspicious-looking shadows or other magical phenomena that would constitute as a threat. The eggs themselves snoozed in their little shelters, dreaming of Easter and of the bright colors that would adorn them. All was as it should be in the Warren at night.

Yet, in a corner of Bunny's den, something stirred. Something unseen. Slowly, carefully, and quietly, a set of footprints formed on the earthen floor. They appeared gradually, as if their maker was trying to be as stealthy as possible. At the slightest sound, a breath of air, a sleepy chirp from a fairy, the far-off footfalls of an egg sentinel, the footprints would stop for a few minutes before continuing their tread. Inexorably, the footprints continued their path towards Bunny, asleep and secure in his own mind.

The footprints came to resemble those of someone on tiptoe as they came closer and closer to Bunny's resting place. As they approached, they began to creep around him towards his holster. When they arrived in front of it, they stopped. Nothing happened for a moment, as though they was making sure they were unwatched. Then, the pocket where Bunny kept his Wonderland marbles opened by itself and soon after, the small bag made its way out of its container.

As it came free, the bag swung forward, causing its precious contents to click against each other. In the quiet dark, the sound was almost deafening. Bunny snorted, stirred in his slumber, and his eyes twitched open for a few seconds before closing again. As soon as it was clear he was still asleep, there was a sound like someone breathing a sigh of relief. The bag moved through the air and suddenly vanished.

The tiptoed footprints began to make their way to the cave's entrance. However, they stopped by Bunny and then spread outwards ever so slightly. Out of thin air, a syringe suddenly appeared. It was filled with a yellow, nasty-looking liquid; the plunger was gently squeezed, allowing a stream of the drug to arc through the air. A drop landed on a blade of grass growing by the entrance. Almost instantly, the green, healthy plant turned yellow, and then brown before it withered away.

The syringe was lowered until it stopped right above a vein in Bunny's neck. It ran itself along the length of the pooka's neck teasingly, only a few centimeters from plunging its sharp tip into his body and unleashing its horrid contents. After a few minutes of this, the syringe vanished and a voice, almost infinitesimal in its volume, whispered. "Soon, Bunnymund, very soon."

The prints continued on their way out of the den and into the dark of the Warren. Once well out of Bunnymund's earshot, they broke into a run, only slowing whenever an egg sentinel came into the line of sight or hearing. Shortly, the prints came to the main atrium of the Warren, where the tunnels that lead to the six inhabited continents began. They sprinted into the North America passage. Once the Warren was far behind, the prints abruptly stopped and the yellow-green ball that was Lyssa's main mode of transportation took their place.

She blazed a trail of chaotic light to the end of the tunnel, which opened to allow her out. In the middle of a Kansas pasture, the ball emerged and turned into a panting Lyssa. As she caught her breath, both her eyes and her mouth smirked as she regarded the invisible exit from the Easter Bunny's home.

"Well, it appears studying all those kleptomaniacs back in the day paid off. Though, I would hardly call them maniacs. Pests and amateurs, more like."

For the past week, Lyssa had been in the Warren, waiting for an opportunity to snatch the marbles from Bunny's holster pocket. With the eggs, the sentinels, the fairies, and Bunny himself all running (or flying) around, she had to be careful lest someone walked into her. There had been a couple of close calls the first two days, but she learned quickly to avoid the Warren's unique traffic. There was also the factor of Bunny leaving the Warren at least a couple times each day.

It helped that she was very patient. When she was human, she was used to getting her way when she wanted it, which had usually ranged from "right now" to "five minutes". Patience was something she had learned while watching the unstable go insane, which ranged from months to years at a time. The man known as "Jack the Ripper" had taken eight years to finally succumb to his insanity. Lyssa was both fascinated and disappointed when she finally diagnosed him: Schizophrenia with a hint of megalomania. Megalomaniacs weren't new in her experience; she had seen the horrors committed under the Roman Emperors after all. The voices in his head that told him to kill prostitutes, and that it was right to do so, now that had piqued her interest.

Why did those voices exist in the first place, and why did it target that particular group? Lyssa's personal theory was that he had been the offspring of a "working woman" and had developed a real hatred for them. A hatred that he had kept down for so long that it took the form of the voices in his head, telling him to satisfy his desire to rid the world of them and then to destroy their cadavers. She had never had the chance to delve that far into his mind since he himself had been murdered by the brother of one of his victims and dumped into the Atlantic with a few stones tied around his feet.

That same patience had come in handy when she was studying the Guardians and Alice. She could afford to be patient. She was, after all, an immortal, a being for whom time was an ally, not an adversary. She had spent months learning about Alice and planning her return to insanity. Acquiring the tools with which to torment Alice with her painful recollections hadn't been easy, but definitely worth it. Using them, even more fun than adding her own voice to a schizo's internal dialogue.

What had surprised Lyssa at the last Guardian meeting she had secretly attended had been Alice. She had begun "reminding" Alice of her dark times a few weeks before that particular meeting. She figured that either Alice would have come to the Guardians earlier or that she would be a wreck by then. Neither had happened; Alice was there at the meeting, obviously sleep-deprived and brooding (the latter was normal), but hardly the sobbing, trembling, gibbering mad girl that would only need a little push to make her qualified for a strait jacket.

What really surprised Lyssa had been Alice's revelation that a new foe was gunning for herself and for the Guardians, using the very strategy that she devised, courtesy of the Cheshire Cat. Lyssa remembered that twisted animal from Alice's Guardianship Party, that glorious, twisted caricature of feline form and madness, mocking the world and everyone in it with that huge, yellowed grin and glowing eyes. Was he some kind of clairvoyant or did he possess a form of pre-cognition? Or had he somehow known what she was planning to do when she revealed her insane side to him? Whatever it was, she needed to quicken her time table, and fast.

The answer to Alice's lack of progression (or regression) came when the Guardians broke for lunch. She had glanced over Alice's shoulder and realized that the girl's doodle was a calendar, specifically one that charted out the flashbacks that she had been receiving. Apparently, Wonderland time was different from "normal time". She had started triggering flashbacks about a week earlier, intending to slowly progress from the Dollmaker Siege all the way back to the fire. She did it every twelve hours, estimating when Alice would be asleep by the time she had left the Guardian meetings. From Alice's point of view, she was having three or four flashbacks every other twelve days. This would wear her down over time, but not as quickly as Lyssa would have liked.

Realizing this, along with the knowledge that Cheshire Cat somehow knew about her, Lyssa knew she had to up the time line. After slipping behind Bunny when he made a tunnel back to the Warren, she had sent a memory of the fire directly to Alice, hoping to jar her. To entertain herself while waiting to get the marbles, she randomized the flashback triggers. Now, Alice would be experiencing flashbacks at different intervals, different levels of intensity, and different points in her history. At one point, Lyssa had refrained from letting Alice have any flashbacks for a whole day before sending her a really vivid one of her first session with Bumby followed by a cloudy Pris Witless blackmailing her for alcohol money.

Lyssa took out the bag and rolled a marble out, studying it curiously in the palm of her hand. It was like any cat's-eye marble she had seen before, except that the strip of colored material that ran down through its core was constantly shifting colors. From a banana yellow to a deep purple to calming green and all the others, the cat's-eye changed to every color imaginable. Lyssa found herself trying to predict which color and shade were next, but found it too erratic even for her. _'Alice certainly has an imagination, especially when it comes to the random and the haphazard.'_

Anyone else who saw that marble would have thought it beautiful, a true marvel to behold. The only thing that Lyssa found attractive in it was the irregular changing of its hues.

"Now then," she said aloud as she began to survey the nearby ground. "Best to find the habitation of a Leporidae and test these marbles out. It wouldn't do if I need one of his tunnels specifically to unlock a portal to Wonderland."

She had also taken the opportunity to listen in on college biology lectures, along with quite a few others. Lyssa would have made a brilliant student and woman if she had been born in a different time to a different family and a different nation. Sometimes she wondered how she had merely been satisfied with the social lives of Pompeii's upper class when there were so many other interesting things to learn about the world.

"Ah, here we are." Fields in the middle of Kansas were advisable for locating rabbit holes, fortunately. "Now, how did that altruistic furball do it again? Ah yes, like tossing a rock into a stream. Then again, this is just your average rabbit burrow. Better put a little force behind it."

Lyssa clutched the marble hard in her fist and threw it hard down the hole. An instant later, she was rewarded with the flash of colorful, moving lights that signaled the creation of a magic portal, much like the snow globes that North used. The portal expanded out of the hole and Lyssa instinctively jumped back. She looked into the swirling kaleidoscope that made up the doorway between two dimensions and smiled, a mad flash appearing and disappearing in her eyes. She looked over the instruments and tools that she had begun taking along with her just in case she came across something that needed further study or became involved in a fight.

Satisfied that everything she needed was ready, Lyssa looked down at the portal, and then jumped in.

Lyssa had seen and experienced some bizarre things while looking through the minds of the unstable and insane, but nothing prepared her for the disorientating lights, sounds, and sensations as she fell down the rabbit hole. A strong wind howled in her ears as she plummeted downward at a speed she didn't know was possible. The lights blinded her and she closed her eyes, further adding to her confusion. Time itself lost meaning as she continued to tumble down, down, down.

At one point Lyssa opened her eyes to perceive gigantic forks, spoons, teacups, books, gears, clocks, cards, and chairs go soaring by. All the way down she heard voices from her past, voices that she hadn't heard in nearly two thousand years. Her husband, her son, her daughters, prominent citizens of Pompeii, memorable maniacs, and Pitch all added to the cacophony of noise that echoed through her ears. Without warning, a strong flash of light went off, momentarily blinding Lyssa.

She quickly became aware of a marked decrease in her descent, as well as the sudden absence of vertigo. The light faded and Lyssa found herself falling past amongst some truly gigantic trees. She was vaguely aware of a babbling brook as the ground came up to meet her. She was just able to get her footing right as she landed, stumbling down to her knees before righting herself again. _'What a rotten occasion to wear heels. Next time my footwear will be far more sturdy.'_

Adjusting her glasses, Lyssa stood on her feet and took in the verdant surroundings she had found herself in. She took a deep breath of the clean air and breathed it out, wishing it wasn't quite so fresh, nor the birds quite so musical. She grinned crookedly as she fully realized that she was in Wonderland, for real.

_'_ _Now then, the game is truly afoot. If the Dollmaker was one such monster that Alice created, let's see if I can torment her with another.'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no, the Spirit of Insanity is in Wonderland. What horrendous atrocities will she commit in Alice's most beloved place? Lyssa better watch her back; Alice is likely to fill her backside with peppercorns if she's given the excuse. I hope you all enjoyed that. Please tell me what you thought via a comment.There are two ways to use Bunny's Wonderland marbles: Either smash them against a surface like North's globes, or toss them down one of his tunnels. Thankfully, Lyssa doesn't know that they're not as specific as she thinks they are, and that'll limit her trips to Wonderland. Though I don't think she'll be making a second visit. Alice will be on the alert after the first incursion.
> 
> Can anyone guess what Lyssa finds and uses to drive Alice further into madness? Hint: It's included in the DLC for Alice: Madness Returns. Believe me, it's going to be downright horrifying.
> 
> Happy reading and writing, everyone!

**Author's Note:**

> I hope Lyssa gave you all chills. This prologue is meant to see what others think about the idea: An insane psychiatrist/spirit is out to drive our heroine Alice mad once again. As if the Dollmaker wasn't enough. By the time I'm done, you'll either want to strangle me or Lyssa. Terrible things are in store for Alice and the Guardians. 
> 
> If you liked the prologue and the idea, please leave a kudos or a comment. I want to know what my readers think of this and I like feedback. Also, if this is well-received, I'll write on it whenever inspiration comes to me and when I can. I'm currently in college and looking for a summer job.
> 
> BTW, Scorpiofreak told me that she thinks that "Immortal Madness" would make a better prologue than this because it introduces Lyssa. I personally want to keep all of my ROTG/AMR OCs as oneshots, but if you agree with her, please let me know. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little escapade into the Heart of Darkness and Insanity. Happy reading and writing!


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